Gray Death
by YuriSmirnoff
Summary: Alexei considered himself a pretty normal student at Signal Academy, despite his lack of a semblance. He had friends, he had started and ended a few relationships, and he just couldn't figure out what the hell his feelings were for Yang Xiao Long. Despite all that, he always found himself wondering what his semblance would be if he had one. When he did find out, he didn't want one.
1. The Anniversary

**Author's Notes: This is the first fanfic I have put up for others to see. I have written others but I was not as satisfied with them. This story will mostly focus on my OC but I'm just sticking him in the RWBY storyline. Another OC team that has already graduated from Beacon will show up later. I hope my OC doesn't come off as a Marty Stu but being a new writer I can't make any guarantees. I also have to warn you all that I have a poor understanding of grammar so there will probably be tons of bad sentences. I have pairings in mind but they may or may not happen. Now that I'm rambling I think I should just get started.**

**Disclaimer for the whole story: I do not own RWBY. It would be neat to, but I do not.**

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Chapter One: The Anniversary

Ozpin took a sip from his mug as he watched the first years soar through the air after their launch. He looked over at the figure in the dark gray cloak standing on the edge as it stared down at the forest. The students had hardly even noticed the figure that had been shadowing him. Ozpin made sure that the person underneath that cloak was always somewhere where he could be monitored. That person's name was Alexei Seryy.

"Why did you bring me here?" asked Alexei. "You know it's the anniversary."

"Yes." replied Ozpin. "And that's why I brought you."

"To make sure I never forget what I did?" asked Alexei with anger in its voice.

"No, Alexei." said Ozpin as Glynda's hand twitched towards her wand. "To make sure you always remember why we are trying to fix the problem that you are having."

Alexei squatted down and scooped up some dirt with his hand and let it trickle over the edge of the cliff. Most of the first years had finally gone below the tree line and Professor Goodwitch set up her scroll to watch the students from the cameras positioned throughout the forest.

"Then couldn't you have just shown me some recordings from last year?" asked Alexei. "I'd much rather stay in my cell than be here again."

Ozpin took another sip from his mug and replied. "I think you'll find that you can't always run and hide from all of your problems Alexei."

Alexei looked out at some of the first years. He spotted a long mess of wild blonde hair as well as a red cloak, Yang, and her younger sister, Ruby. He had been close friends with both of them in his time at Signal. That had made him make sure that his own gray cloak kept his identity a mystery.

"You know some of them, don't you?" asked Ozpin.

"Yeah," said Alexei. "I went to Signal. I knew Yang and Ruby. Remember?"

"Ah, yes." said Ozpin. "I almost forgot, weren't you friends with them?"

"Once upon a time." said Alexei. "But that was then. Now I know what's inside of me. I can't let anyone get close to me ever again."

Glynda gave Ozpin a serious look, Ozpin responded with another look that made her nod and go back to her scroll.

Alexei simply continued to stare out at the Emerald Forest. He gave a side glance at the platforms that had thrown the students forward and he slowly remembered how his first day had gone.

-One year ago-

Alexei had a smile on his face as he looked at the others around him. They were standing on metal platforms on the edge of a cliff. Ozpin had just told them their objective and the students were being flung towards the forest one by one. His best friend Marcus Growly stood next to him.

"How the hell are we gonna meet up?" asked Alexei.

"I'll be right next to the giant tree." said Marcus, sarcasm thick in his voice.

"Thanks man." said Alexei, "Now I know where to look for you in the forest filled with giant trees."

Marcus smiled as he pulled out his special kusarigama. The scythe end was also a machine pistol while the ball on the end of the ten-foot chain was designed to release different dust capsules on impact.

Alexei pulled his own weapon off of his back. It was a gray rectangle which began unfolding to reveal a five foot long, heavily modified rifle. It could shoot high caliber ammunition on semi-auto. On the end of the barrel was a two-foot long, razor sharp bayonet. A button next to the trigger caused two axe blades to fold out of the stock. He had been working on the thing for years and he was proud of it. He called it Gray Death due to its gray coloring. The whole weapon was thanks to help from Ruby and her uncle Qrow.

"Hey um…Alexei?"

Alexei turned his head towards the small voice and saw Jessica Finrick standing on the platform to his right. She had always been a quiet and somewhat timid girl even if she was an excellent fighter. Her favorite color was green which was why it was almost the only color she was wearing which gave a nice contrast to her bright red hair. She was staring down at the ground as she played with some string on her green sleeves. Alexei always thought she acted odd around him.

"If there's any room left on your team with Marcus then I think I would like to join." she looked up from the ground and into his eyes. It almost looked like she was pleading with him.

Next to him Alexei could hear Marcus groan before his platform flung him into the woods.

Alexei smiled to her before he spoke, "I think I'd like having you on my team."

Jessica looked overjoyed and Alexei forgot what he was doing as he just realized how beautiful the girl in front of him was. He paid for it dearly as he was flung through the air with no preparation. He had almost dropped Gray Death as well.

As he flew through the air he attempted to calm himself and stop flailing his arms. He noticed the trees below him getting closer and swung Gray Death around in front of him and began firing off shots in an attempt to slow his momentum at least some. He noticed that one giant tree in particular seemed to be getting closer to him and all he could do was strengthen his aura towards his front and brace for impact.

Hitting the tree had been painful but he had managed to stab Gray Death's bayonet into the tree to stop from sliding. He breathed in and out without strain meaning that he hadn't broken any ribs. It would probably just be some bruising.

He looked below him and cursed to see that he was halfway up the enormous oak. He would have some climbing to do. As he began doing his best not to fall down the tree he heard someone land on a branch above him. He looked up to see Jessica looking into his eyes with her spear in her hands.

For a moment complete silence passed between the two as they stared into each other's eyes. Alexei knew that they were partners now and would be for the next four years. He was going over the pros and cons in his mind. On one hand Jessica was a great fighter, both him and her were fairly high on the leaderboards at Signal, so the two of them could kick some serious ass. On the other hand she always seemed awkward around him, alternating between trying to talk to him and just running away. She was a complete mystery to him.

Suddenly her face turned bright red to match her hair color as her green eyes looked away, "Alexei! Does this mean? You haven't seen anyone else have you?"

"Nope." he said, "We're partners now." He gave her a smile as she blushed again and turned away. "Do you know a way out of this tree though?" he asked.

"You remember my semblance?" she asked.

"Gravity manipulation, right?"

"Yes." she said, "I could get us down but we would to be…touching."

"Alright." he said.

He climbed up to the branch and grabbed her hand. Her face turned even redder as she changed their source of gravity to the tree. Hand in hand they walked down the tree towards the ground.

"This is weird." he said, "Cool though."

They made it to the ground and she let go of his hand causing him to fall onto his stomach.

"I'm sorry!" she said as she changed her gravity back to the ground.

"It's alright." he said as he got to his feet and began brushing dirt off his grey jeans and black t-shirt, "Ozpin said that we need to get to the ruins in the northern part of the forest, didn't he?" Alexei asked.

Jessica gave a nod in reply. Alexei chose a direction at random and started walking with Jessica right behind him.

They walked in silence. Every time Alexei looked back at Jessica she would immediately look down and start playing with her sleeves. Alexei still couldn't figure out what her problem was.

"Anyone else you like to have on our team?" Alexei was trying to make the walk less uncomfortable.

"There's Olivia Grimore." she said, "I've known her for awhile."

"As in the Grimore family?" Alexei asked. The Grimore family was one of the most powerful families in Vale, second only to the Schnee family.

"Yes." she said in her quiet voice, "My father works as a butler in their household so I spent a lot of time with her as a kid."

"She didn't go to Signal did she?"

"No. She was privately tutored from a young age." said Jessica.

"Well I'm guessing you know that I want my friend Marcus with us." said Alexei.

"I figured."

Alexei reached for Gray Death as soon as he heard some rustling in bushes near them. He lowered his hand when he also heard some incredibly sarcastic remarks.

"Sure I'll go find you a powder room princess. Why don't I just call up a taxi to take us?"

Marcus walked through the bushes and looked at Alexei and Jessica in silence.

"Well I can't help it that I'm used to a life of high class unlike peasants like you."

As luck would have it, Olivia walked in right behind Marcus. Like Jessica she wore almost one color exclusively, only she wore purple, the color of the Grimore family. A decorated long sword hung in a scabbard at her side. Despite the fact that her dress was wrinkled and she had dirt on her legs, she still carried herself as a noble.

"Well it looks like we were both a little late to become each other's partners." said Marcus.

"She fell on a branch above me." said Alexei, "What's your excuse?"

"She fell on top of me." said Marcus as he jabbed his thumb in Olivia's direction, "She's been explaining to me how big of an honor it was for me ever since."

"Well I guess we should team up." said Alexei, "The four of us could make it there a lot easier. What do you think Jessica?"

"I agree." she said quietly.

"How about you princess?" asked Marcus.

"Well at least I won't have to put up with all boys like I thought I would, and I'll get to be with Jessica." said Olivia, "And would you stop calling me that!"

"Not if you keep acting like a princess, princess." said Marcus.

They started moving towards where Alexei thought the ruins had been. Olivia and Jessica were a few yards behind them, talking about something. Marcus looked back at them before speaking, "You know she's been staring at you this whole time."

"I know." said Alexei, "It's kind of weird."

"Are you retarded?" asked Marcus, "Or were you more into Yang and Ruby than I thought?"

"What do you mean?" Alexei asked with pure confusion in his voice.

"She's obviously into you." said Marcus, "Don't you find her attractive?"

"I guess." said Alexei, "Are you sure?"

"Dude, she's staring at you like a fat kid stares at the last piece of candy." said Marcus, "Either she wants you, or she wants to kill you and eat you."

"Why are you so messed up?" asked Alexei.

"Blame my parents." said Marcus with a shrug.

They came to a clearing and stopped in the center. A loud growl erupted from the woods.

"Should I go get some caviar princess?" asked Marcus.

"That was not my stomach!"

A beowolf entered the clearing and crouched low before standing on both hind legs to release a loud howl. Beowolves started running out of the forest towards them. Each member of the group drew their weapons and attacked.

Marcus flung the ball of his kusarigama at one beowolf. When it collided an explosion erupted from the ball, killing the beowolf and setting others near it aflame.

Jessica leaped high through the air and came back down hard on a beowolf, using her gravity manipulation to crush the thing.

Olivia drew her sword and cut the head off of one beowolf and then used a glyph to shoot a fireball at another.

Alexei used Gray Death to shoot several beowolves before they could even reach him. Before one could attack him from behind he swung the rifle around to cut open the things face with the bayonet. He pushed the button next the trigger which popped out the axe blades. He swung the weapon around and used some recoil from the rifle to slash open another beowolf's chest.

"Doesn't this seem like a lot of Beowolves?" shouted Marcus as he buried the scythe into ones head, "They usually travel in packs, not hordes."

Alexei found it odd as well, but that thought left his mind as he heard deep squeals and roars also erupting from the forest. Ursa majors and minors as well as boarbatusks all came charging into the clearing.

"Why are there so many?" screamed Olivia as she barely avoided the massive claw of an ursa major.

Alexei fought without thinking, his own movements became too quick for his mind to process. He could feel his aura draining from the many hits he was taking.

"Why aren't you two using your semblances?" yelled Olivia.

"I have been!" shouted Marcus. His semblance was his ability to manipulate the dust in his kusarigama.

"Then what about you Alexei?"

"I don't have a semblance!" he shouted back.

"No semblance!" Olivia stopped before she stabbed a boarbatusk in its belly, "Wonderful!"

"Why are they all going after Alexei?" shouted Jessica.

The rest paused as Alexei continued to fight and realized that the monsters would only attack them if they provoked them. It seemed as though the creatures were all focused entirely on Alexei.

Alexei barely brought up Gray Death in time before an ursa major brought its paw down on him. He had somehow blocked the strike, but he could feel his aura fading. He felt a sharp pain as a beowolf struck at his back. Alexei collapsed but Jessica stabbed the ursa in the head before it could crush him. She ran up to him. He was on his knees, his head facing the ground, his weapon sat next to him. She could feel that his aura was gone. She lifted his head with her hand and gasped at his facial expression.

He looked almost nothing like the boy she had a huge crush on. His eyes had gone from dark gray to entirely black. His mouth had twisted into a demonic smile which showed off all of his teeth which turned into sharp fangs with elongated canines. Suddenly she could feel his aura surge. It grew to ridiculously high levels, far exceeding what they had been at. Its color had changed from its dark grey to a pitch black.

He rose to his feet. He looked at Jessica's face, finding it odd that she was staring at him in shock. He shrugged it off and was amazed at how great he felt. He no longer felt the wound on his back and his aura felt infinite. The Creatures of Grimm around them had simply stopped and were all staring at him, just like his teammates. He picked Gray Death off of the ground and charged straight into nearest pack of Grimm.

The creatures awoke from their trance and began attacking him in turn, but not a single strike made it through his aura. Beowolves fell left and right to his swings and he continually kicked over boarbatusks to get at their bellies. Another ursa struck at him, but he leaped through the air to cut though its huge neck in one swing, not even needing any added recoil to do so. Within seconds the field and Alexei were covered in Grimm blood and body parts. The whole time the crazy smile and look in Alexei's eyes had never left his face.

"I think you just found your semblance man." said Marcus.

Alexei turned to face Marcus. His expression didn't change one bit as he jumped the gap in between them and buried Gray Death's axe in his chest.

On the cliff's edge a mug hit the ground as Ozpin stared into the large scroll he had been using to watch the students.

Glynda Goodwitch looked at him to see what was the matter. She moved closer to the screen that he was looking at in disbelief. Then she saw the reason for his shock. The screen was fixed on the team they had been watching the most. It was made up of four members that had all graduated very high on their previous school's leaderboard. The biggest surprise on the team had been one Alexei Seryy, a boy who had no known semblance, yet was highly skilled with both his weapon and aura manipulation. Glynda saw that their team was hopelessly surrounded by Creatures of Grimm, but that was not the most unnerving thing on the screen, that would be Alexei.

Her usually stoic and professional demeanor faltered as she let out a gasp upon seeing the boy. Three nasty gashes on his back were sealing shut while pure pitch black aura glowed through them. The boy now had a black aura that was so strong it could be seen through the camera lens. The boy's face had also changed; his eyes, pupils and all, were now solid black, like that of a shark. His mouth had contorted into a terrifying smile and it seemed as though his teeth had changed as well. The canines had grown in length and the rest looked visibly sharper.

"That semblance." she muttered.

"We need to send in all available staff." said Ozpin, attempting to maintain his calm, "They need to remove any students near him. How many have completed already?"

Glynda checked her scroll, "A little more than half the teams have returned with their relics."

Ozpin put on a face of displeasure, "We need to evacuate them." he repeated, he sent out a group call to his entire staff, all of which answered immediately, "We must commit a full evacuation of all students in the Emerald Forest immediately, the situation has become code black."

All gave acknowledgement and hung up, except for Bartholomew Oobleck.

"You have never ordered an evacuation during an initiation in all your years as headmaster." he said, through the scroll, "Might I ask what deserves a code black?"

"One student, Alexei Seryy, possesses the Semblance of Death." Ozpin responded back.

Oobleck was silent for a second before responding, "Interesting." was all Ozpin heard before the man on the other end hung up.

Ozpin turned back to the screen to see that Alexei's fight had greatly changed in his favor. The Grimm creatures were falling left and right to his attacks. His strength, speed, and aura were all off any charts Ozpin possessed.

"With all of the positives to this semblance it is a true shame that it has such harsh negatives." said Ozpin.

"Do you wish for me to assist in the evacuation sir?" asked Glynda.

"That won't be necessary." he said as he picked up off the ground and began cleaning it, "The rest of the staff will be more than enough to get the rest of the students out. It seems as though the only two teams did not make it to the ruins, one of which was Alexei's."

"Won't we have to restrain him?" she asked.

Ozpin shook his head, "Such a thing would be incredibly dangerous to attempt, just look at him." Ozpin gestured to the screen as Alexei beheaded another ursa major, "Every teacher here was or still is a master hunter, and yet I doubt any of them could beat him in his current state. No, we will have to wait until he runs out of strength."

"How long could that take?"

"Hard to say." said Ozpin, "Only a handful in history have been cursed with the Death Semblance. Only one other on record currently has it. Eventually, however, it will become too much of a strain on his body, and he will black out. The Grimm are also attracted to his immense aura. That should help."

On screen Alexei had finished with the remainder of the Grimm. The boy was covered head to toe in blood and still had that smile. One of his friends spoke to him and Alexei responded by closing the distance between the two in a split second before he plunged the axe head deep into the other boy's chest.

"And that is the major hindrance of the Semblance of Death. The user is put into a state of bloodlust so deep that they have no control over their actions once the Semblance is activated." said Ozpin grimly, "He wasn't even able to willingly activate it. Of the six dozen or so on record who gained the power of the semblance, less than a quarter managed to control it."

Alexei ripped Gray Death out of Marcus' chest, his ribcage snapped wide open.

_What the fuck am I doing?_ Alexei had no control as he swung Gray Death around and stabbed the bayonet straight into Marcus' eye socket. The look on his friend's face before he died was forever embedded in his mind.

Alexei heard the two girls scream. He turned to Olivia who attempted to form a glyph but Alexei shot from his hip and the bullet pierced straight through Olivia's stomach.

_Have I been out of control this whole time?_

He turned to Jessica who was shaking violently as he slowly approached her. She fell to her knees as she stared into the terrifying face of the monster that had replaced the boy she had a crush on.

"Alexei, why…" her voice was tiny and pleading. Tears rolled down her face as Alexei slowly walked to her.

Alexei tried to do anything to stop himself, but he was powerless as he retracted the bayonet and put the barrel of the rifle to Jessica's right thigh before pulling the trigger. Her leg was completely blown off as she screamed in pain and horror. All she could do was watch as Alexei turned away and walked into the forest.

She clutched at the stump that used to be her leg. She had been so full of fear that she hadn't been able to even reinforce her aura around her leg. She looked over to her two fallen comrades. She quickly looked away from the mutilated corpse of Marcus and crawled towards Olivia.

The other girl was still breathing, but faintly, and the wound in her stomach was bleeding quickly. She attempted to apply pressure but found that she couldn't do it with her own wound. Her vision began to darken as she saw her own leg lying at the end of the bloody trail she had left along the ground.

She heard movement and reached for her spear. A man with messy green hair and glasses leapt down from a tree and rushed over to her with incredible speed.

He quickly studied the situation and opened up his scroll to report on his position to any nearby staff members. He closed the scroll and removed the belt from his pants to wrap around Jessica's leg. Not her leg, her stump. He then began to apply pressure to Olivia's stomach wound.

"Why would he do this?" Jessica asked with a weak voice and tears in her eyes.

"Please do not speak." the man spoke softly.

Jessica stared at the sky above her as her vision faded. The last thing she felt before blacking out was a pair of strong arms lifting her into a stretcher.

Alexei had continued through the forest, annihilating anything with a pulse. He had stopped at another team and made quick work of them. The unfortunate team had not anticipated an attack from a human and had gone done in under a minute.

He stood above the final one. A faunus girl with dog ears. She was still breathing. Her leg and arm were broken and her weapon lay next to a large human boy who had lost his head protecting her. She was up against a tree and was breathing fast and heavily. Alexei felt the smile disappear off of his face.

Alexei looked down at the girl. Fear was dominating her eyes. She was quietly pleading with him. She was very beautiful, but the blood running down the side of her face gave her a much darker appearance.

Still having no control over his actions Alexei bent down to the girl and used a finger to move some stray hair out of her face. The girl was quiet now, unsure of what he would do. Alexei ran his finger into the blood and pulled it away to examine it. It looked the exact same as human blood, but also different. It looked delicious. Alexei licked the blood off the end of his finger to both his own disgust and the disgust of the girl below him. What shocked Alexei even more however was just how sweet the blood tasted.

With no control he got closer to the girl who tried to shuffle away. Gently, like a lover he took her chin with a few fingers and brought his lips to hers. He stuck his tongue into her mouth to taste her. The girl made no moves, perhaps completely shocked by this turn of events, but she was clearly not enjoying it. Alexei pulled out of the kiss and looked into her eyes. She looked at him with such a blend of emotions he couldn't tell what she was feeling, but none of it was positive.

He went back in, but this time he bit her lip and added some of the sweet tasting blood to the mix. The kiss was rougher this time and she began to struggle as he began to suck the blood from her lip. He pulled back once again and lifted up her chin to expose her pale neck. She gave him one last pleading look of fear before he put his mouth on her neck and seeped his fangs into the flesh to start sucking the blood from her veins. It was sweet and to his own horror he loved the taste. Soon enough the girl stopped struggling and the blood stopped flowing as strongly as it had when he started.

He backed away and looked at his work. The girl had died with her eyes wide open and a look of terror and agony adorned her face. Her neck was covered in blood and the flesh was ripped open in a bloody lump where he had drunk from.

He fell backwards and stared at the sky. He could feel the massive aura disappear. His face muscles ached from maintaining that smile for so long. He was overjoyed to find that he could control own body, which he proved by twitching his right index finger, but that one movement alone took all his strength. He was barely able to breathe. The only sounds were the wind moving in the trees above him and his own slowly beating heart. The blood in his mouth no longer tasted sweet, but like normal blood. It felt like days had passed before his eyes closed and listened. He fell asleep as he was lifted by strong arms and placed onto a stretcher.

-Now-

Alexei shook his head, waking up from his daydream and stood up. Down below was the forest that he had left completely soaked in blood just a year ago.

"Why don't you come watch Alexei?" asked Ozpin who was standing at the large wall sized scroll he used for observing initiation.

Alexei moved to stand behind him. He could feel Professor Goodwitch watching him, waiting for him to make some violent move on Ozpin. He knew that she was fiercely dedicated to the man who was slightly older than her, but she was on high alert whenever Alexei was in close proximity to him.

They watched on as the new first years displayed great skill. He was impressed with how far along Ruby and Yang had come within the year that he had spent in hiding.

"It seems as though your classmates this year have extraordinary talent." Ozpin remarked before he took a drink from his mug.

"Classmates? I'm a second year." said Alexei.

"You spent the whole year mostly inside a cell." said Ozpin, "You didn't make it to a single class. You may be eighteen, but according to your credits, you're still a first year."

"I can't let them recognize me." said Alexei.

"You already took to wearing the cloak and bandana over your face." said Ozpin, "They might recognize your voice, but remember, they also think you're dead, it's not as though they'll be looking for you."

"I hope so." said Alexei as he watched Ruby organize an attack with her team that resulted in them taking out a Nevermore, "They sure have come a long way."

"Indeed." said Ozpin, "I do believe they did the best out of all the teams, followed closely by the one which killed the Deathstalker. This is shaping up to be an interesting year." a smile began to spread on his face.

"Sir," said Professor Goodwitch behind them, "They are the last group to arrive. We can now begin the initiation ceremony."

"Yes, I believe this will be an interesting year." said Ozpin once again.

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**AN: Well now that I've finished there might be some explaining to do. I chose Alexei's first name because I think it's a cool name. I know, rather shallow of me. Since his first name is Russian I decided to make his last name the Russian word for gray which is his color if you didn't notice.**

**I went with gray because it represents depression, emotional numbness, and moral complexity all of which kind of sum up Alexei.**

**I had the idea for Alexei's semblance much earlier than I even had a name for him. It's similar to Yang's in that the user gains large amounts of strength and undergoes a slight physical change, but the Death Semblance is not only more deadly, it is also so much harder to control than Yang's that the user can only watch as they kill anything within the immediate area. The user will also experience a fatigue so dramatic that if the Semblance is used for too long they will become completely immobile. It is possible to control but that will be shown later on.**

**I guess I should stop now before I reveal the entire story. As for when I'll update it will most likely be a random occurrence.**


	2. Starting Classes

Chapter 2: Starting Classes

"Russell Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark." Ozpin listed off the names as the four boys' faces formed together on the large screens overhead, "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward the four of you shall work together as team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester."

Alexei stood at the back of the stage, a barely noticeable cloaked figure that few even bothered to glance over. He watched the newly formed team CRDL walk off the stage. Their performance hadn't impressed him at all. When the group was faced with a large ursa major they immediately ran in a cowardly fashion. He was particularly disgusted with Cardin Winchester who had first met a wolf Faunus boy as his partner, but instead of partnering with him as he should have, Cardin had beaten the boy to a pulp. Luckily, the wolf boy had managed to get away and partner up with a human girl who had a healing semblance, and was much kinder than Cardin.

Next walked up another team, the one that had defeated the Deathstalker.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie." Alexei felt sadness wash over him. He wondered if this was what his team would have looked like a year ago, standing tall and proud of their accomplishments. Instead, one was dead, one was in a deep coma, one was crippled, and one had a bloodthirsty monster within him.

"The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces," Alexei wondered if Ozpin was color blind, the pieces were gold, "From this day forward you will work together as team JNPR."

The giggly hammer girl in pink wrapped her arms around the neck of the stoic boy in green, giving a laugh as she did so. The two must have been dating.

"Led by Jaune Arc."

The blond haired boy gave a sound of surprise. Alexei was surprised by the decision as well. Thinking back the boy had proven himself to be intelligent, but far from combat ready. He decided not to question it. In the year that he had known Ozpin he had learned that the man thought in mysterious ways.

The girl in bronze colored armor next to Jaune, assumingly Pyrrha, gave him a smile and a punch on the arm which knocked him to the ground, causing laughter to erupt from the crowd.

JNPR exited the stage as the last team arrived.

"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long." Alexei looked at his two friends from Signal. He had been close with them. Marcus had had no interest in hanging out with them but Alexei had spent many days with Yang and later Ruby when she had entered Signal. Ruby had introduced him to her uncle Qrow who had helped him with Gray Death's creation. He silently wondered how the two had taken the news of his supposed death. He knew that they might have spent a week or two in mourning but they couldn't have possibly grieved as long as he knew his parents had.

His father probably tried to bury himself as far into his work as possible, while his mother had probably quit her job entirely and mourned for months before trying to even leave the house. He had known that both of his parents suffered from depression but he preferred that they think their child was dead rather than know that he was a monster.

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you shall work together as team RWBY. Led by Ruby Rose."

The four members minus Yang looked shocked and as Yang hugged Ruby. Alexei couldn't help but feel shocked as well. He had known that Ruby had tremendous fighting skill, especially for someone two years younger than the rest here, but he had never seen her as a leader.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an…interesting year." that had been the third time today that Ozpin had said that today.

Alexei watched as team RWBY turned and saw Ruby give a look at him. Alexei was glad that the cloak and mask covered up his entire body. The only thing she could see were his dark eyes which were common enough in the kingdom of Vale.

"Headmaster Ozpin, who's that?" she asked while pointing at him.

"I almost forgot." he said. The crowd had gone silent as the dark gray figure stepped forward hesitantly. "This is Alexis Gray. He is a student who, due to unfortunate circumstances, could not start his first year last year, and will be joining you all this year. He will be his own team, but anyone caught attempting to provoke him into causing violence will be dealt with harshly."

The crowd was unsure what to do and continued to clap for Alexei who furiously stared at Ozpin. He could see that most of the students were giving him strange looks. They had all noticed Alexei but didn't give much thought to his presence, but now that they had a name and knew that he was a student receiving special treatment he seemed to have captured their interest. They all wanted to know who the mystery student was. He turned around and walked off the stage as Ozpin announced where they could go to find their dorm rooms as well as scrolls and luggage.

Alexei waited at the stairs for Ozpin who led him to his office, knowing that Alexei would want to talk. When Ozpin closed the door Alexei pulled down the cloth mask and gave him a piece of his mind.

"Alexis Gray, seriously Ozpin?" he nearly shouted, "You took my name and changed it slightly! I might as well be wearing a see through mask! It's like you want me to be found out."

"You were going to have to repeat the year anyway." said Ozpin, "Were you going to sit in the darkest corner of class and hope that no one approach you? Someone would, and knowing the extrovert personality of your old friend Yang, she probably would have been the first."

"She and Ruby aren't that stupid," said Alexei, "Sure my personality has changed, but with the name Alexis and dark gray eyes they'll be able to put two and two together."

Ozpin sighed as he sat down and took a quick drink from his mug, "Did you seriously think that you would be able to hide your identity throughout all four years?"

Alexei had no response and let Ozpin continue.

"Your fighting style does not favor that cloak." he said, "You would have had to remove it eventually. Your weapon is also a dead giveaway. The first time they see you spar or fight they'll recognize you. Maybe for the first few weeks you'll maintain your anonymity, but sooner or later you will reveal you self."

Alexei had no responses to Ozpin's logic. He was right. Sooner or later Yang and Ruby would realize that Alexis Gray was their dead friend Alexei Seryy.

"I have also moved your room." said Ozpin, "Instead of that cell in the basement you will getting your own dorm room," he said as he handed a scroll to Alexei, "You have no idea how jealous your fellow students will be."

"What if my semblance flips on and I tear my way through the dorms?"

"Your semblance hasn't activated unexpectedly in a non-combat situation in over three months." said Ozpin with a wave of his hand, "That shouldn't be too large of a worry anymore. Nevertheless, your new room has been modified. A device has been installed that will soundproof and reinforce the walls of the room upon detecting a huge surge in aura. Another device will also start draining your aura as fast as it can. An alarm shall ring in both my office and my sleeping quarters and I will alert Ms. Goodwitch." said Ozpin.

"Great." said Alexei, "Just like home."

"Now run along." said Ozpin, "I have work to do, and I trust that you will get along fine in your new home."

Alexei left the office and made his way across the campus to the dorms. He received many different looks from his fellow students, each of which curious about him in their own way. He ignored them and stepped inside the lobby of the dorm building where several students lounged on couches waiting for their leaders to get back with their scrolls which acted as their room keys. He decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. He didn't want to get stuck with people and risk his Semblance activating. When he reached the fifth floor he walked to his room and unlocked it.

Ozpin had given him an entire dorm room to himself, and it made him happy. One bed sat in the corner and several empty shelves and a desk sat on the other side of the room. He noticed a door in the room and opened it to find that it led to a small bathroom. He was incredibly lucky. Ozpin knew that he would want to remain in his room as much as possible and had apparently decided to give him the means to do just that. Now he didn't even have to leave to take a shower with the other males at Beacon. It seemed like the only thing he would need to go outside to get was food.

Alexei noticed the time and realized that dinner would be starting soon. It would be the welcoming dinner for the first years. If he moved fast he could make it to dinner and bring the food back to his room before any other students made it there. He could deliver the dirty dishes to the cafeteria the next day at breakfast.

He made sure the bandana was wrapped tightly around his face and made sure that Gray Death was secure on his back under the cloak and opened the door. He noticed teams RWBY and JNPR walking off the elevator and talking eagerly. Most of their members seemed excited that the two teams would be across the hall from each other. Alexei turned to lock the door and hoped they wouldn't notice him. They were all too deep in conversation to notice the gray cloak a few shades darker than the wall. When they passed he turned to walk away.

"Hey, gray cloak!"

He cursed as he turned to see that the caller had been the Schnee heiress. Alexei looked to see that the other teams had disappeared and then noticed the open doors. He cursed, realizing that team RWBY's dorm was next to his. He focused back on the Schnee girl who was studying him.

"Alexis Gray, right?" Alexei gave a slight nod, "Why is it that Ozpin is giving you special treatment?" he shrugged as a reply, "You even have your own room to yourself don't you? I demand to know why the Headmaster is doing this for you."

"Hey Weiss which bed do you want?" Alexei's eyes widened slightly as Yang came out of the room, "The welcoming dinner will start soon." she turned to look at Alexei standing there, "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

Alexei shook his head and walked away, towards the stairs.

"Hey! Get back here this instant!" shouted Weiss as the boy in the gray cloak ignored her, "How could you be so rude as to not even speak?"

"That's that Alexis guy, right?" asked Yang.

Weiss nodded, still staring in anger at the back of the cloak as it turned and went down the stairs, "I've never heard his name before, and for Ozpin to treat someone so differently he must be pretty special, so why isn't he more well known?"

"Me and Ruby had a friend named Alexei." said Yang, deep in thought, "He had the same gray eyes and love for the color gray. He was one of the top students at Signal. It couldn't be him though."

"How do you know?" asked Weiss.

"You remember that incident last year? When the Emerald Forest was overrun by a way too many Grimm?" Weiss nodded, "Two teams were still in when it happened, one got wiped out, the other lost two members, Alexei was one of them." Yang's voice held sadness as she remembered the day her and Ruby had gotten the news of Alexei's death.

"I see." Weiss said softly.

"Yang! Weiss!" shouted Ruby, "Come on! We need to go to the dinner!"

"Coming!" said Yang. She stared back at the entrance to the stairwell. She knew it couldn't possibly be Alexei, but the boy's eyes had widened when he saw her, and not the way boys' eyes usually widened when they saw her. She could even swear she had seen sadness in those familiar gray eyes. _It couldn't possibly be him. Could it?_

Alexei moved along the campus. With his cloak it almost looked like he was gliding along. He quickly made it to the mess hall where only a few other teams were sitting at the tables. He quickly got a box of prepared food and left as soon as he had entered. He passed a large number of other students making their way to the dinner. He noticed Yang and Weiss gave him a glance as they passed him.

_Yang._ He wanted to talk to her but knew that he should stay away from her. Of the two sisters, he had been closer to her, having met her his sophomore year when she was a freshman. Back then he had been almost as much of an extrovert as her. Soon after he had met Ruby and they became good friends as well.

He shook the memories from his thoughts. The good times were dead. The only thing he should focus on from now on was learning to control the Death Semblance and using it in the war against Grimm.

He arrived in his room and ate before unpacking. He didn't have much. A few books that contained relevant information on the Death Semblance as well as some spare clothes. He took off his cloak and cloth mask to do a few exercises. He had lost count of how long until he heard a knock on the door.

"I didn't order room service!" he shouted.

"We're not room service." came the reply. It was female, but it wasn't a voice he recognized.

"Then go away." he responded.

"We just wanted to talk to our dorm neighbors."

He cursed and put the cloak and mask back on. He looked through eye hole in the door to get a look at who it was. He immediately recognized the team that had brought down the Deathstalker, team JNPR. He opened the door as far as the chain would allow and looked at his visitors. It was the gorgeous redhead in bronze armor, Pyrrha Nikos, who spoke first. Alexei was beginning to wonder if every girl who went to this school was ridiculously attractive.

"You're Alexis Gray aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes." came his reply. He was starting to master this whole cold and distant thing.

"We wanted to say hello-"

"Hello." he interrupted and closed the door. He was almost successful but a pink boot had stopped it. He looked at the pink boot's owner to see hammer girl, Nora Valkyrie.

"Why are you so rude?" she asked. It appeared that her bubbly personality disappeared when somebody did something she didn't like.

"Just the way I am." he said.

"Nora, take your boot out of his door." said the stoic boy, Lie Ren.

"But, Ren, he's being really mean." her tone had become almost whiny, she seemed to have the mind of a child, all the more reason for her to stay away from him.

"You know what Ozpin said Nora." the blond boy, Jaune Arc, said that, "You'll be punished if you bother him too much."

"Fine." she said as pulled her boot away.

"I apologize for my coldness." said Alexei, "But I promise you I don't think myself better than you. I was actually impressed by your defeat of the Deathstalker, but I need to maintain my distance from people."

"Why?" asked Pyrrha.

"That information will remain a secret." he said, "Now why don't you speak with your other dorm neighbors. I'm not much of a talker."

He closed the door and watched them leave through the eye hole

He made sure the door was locked and changed to some sleep clothes. Before he could sleep he tried to activate his Semblance manually but found like all other times, it was impossible.

Alexei's eyes shot open when he heard a whistle. It had come from the dorm next to him.

"Good morning team RWBY!"

He sighed. Ruby hadn't changed at all. The girl was incredibly timid when it came to new people, but even after only a few minutes of knowing a person she would quickly reveal her chipper personality.

He rolled over to check his clock. It was eight. He quietly got up and took a shower. The entire time he could hear team RWBY doing something loud.

He got dressed in the school uniform, but thanks to the school's dress code allowing students to customize it he was still able to wear the cloak and mask. On his way out he picked up an apple and a banana for breakfast, then he walked off to his first class, Grimm Studies with Professor Port. He walked into the room, the only other person was Port.

"You know Ozpin's arrangement right?" Alexei asked.

"Yes," said Port, his bombastic tone ever present. "I am to refer to you as Alexis Gray. Don't worry my boy. Your secret is safe with me."

Alexei nodded and turned to walk up the stairs to sit in the farthest corner of the room. He sat and watched as everyone else filed in with teams RWBY and JNPR both barely on time and panting. For the rest of the lesson Alexei sat incredibly bored. He respected Port for his past accomplishments, but the man was a narcissist. Half of every lesson was him talking about himself. Alexei had already spent a great deal of last year studying the Creatures of Grimm from books while sat in his cell, so anything that Port said that actually had something to do with them was something Alexei already knew. The man also had an unhealthy obsession with capturing creatures and naming them, though he gave them all the same name.

"So who among you believes yourself to be the embodiment of these traits?"

"I do, sir!"

Alexei tore his eyes from the window to look down at Schnee girl with her arm held up.

"Well then," said Port. "Let's find out. Step forward and face your opponent."

Port gestured towards a large cage with red glowing eyes that Alexei had not noticed before. Weiss was allowed to change into her combat outfit before she fought the beast. She got some encouragement from her team and in return snapped at Ruby. It annoyed him a little. He had been protective of Ruby almost as much as Yang during his time at Signal, and seeing someone yell at her like that usually never made him happy.

"Alright," said Port. "Let the match, begin!"

Port cut open the cage and the boarbatusk within charged at Weiss. She dodged while slashing at the beast's side with her rapier. The attack was easily bounced by the armor of the boarbatusk which turned back to face Weiss.

"Ha ha!" laughed Port. "Wasn't expecting that were you!"

"Hang in there Weiss!" shouted Ruby.

Weiss used one of her glyphs to shoot herself forward at the boarbatusk which charged at Weiss as well. The beast hit her with its tusks and managed to lodge Weiss' rapier between two of the massive teeth.

"Bold new approach!" Port said. "I like it!"

"Come on Weiss show it who's boss!"

Weiss turned to give Ruby a look of irritation and paid for it when the boarbatusk used her lack of focus to fling her rapier to the side. The beast smacked Weiss hard in the chest, knocking her to the ground as her rapier skittered across the floor and far away from her.

"Now what will you do without your weapon!" Port only seemed to have one tone of voice.

Weiss barely rolled away from the boarbatusk as it charged her yet again. The beast crashed into one of the thick wooden desks and rolled over onto its feet again.

Weiss slide towards her rapier and scooped it up into her hand.

"Weiss, go for its belly there no armor underneath-"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss snapped at Ruby yet again.

Ruby slumped down as the beast got ready to attack again, but this time it rolled towards her in a ball form. Weiss waited for it and summoned a glyph in front of her and one above and behind her. The beast crashed into the first and fell on its back. Weiss jumped onto the second glyph and shot forward and stabbed the beast in its belly. It gave off some dying sounds before it stopped moving.

"Bravo!" shouted Port, "Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress in training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings. And, stay vigilant! Class dismissed."

Everyone watched as Weiss stormed out and Ruby followed.

Alexei pulled his books out from under the desk and looked up to find himself staring into a familiar pair of purple eyes. Yang still looked as beautiful as Alexei remembered and if anything, she had grown to become even more beautiful. Yang stared for a good while into his eyes as he stared into hers. Then he realized that he was making a mistake by letting her study his eyes. He turned back towards his books.

"Do you want something?" he asked.

"That's the first time I've heard you speak." said Yang.

"Don't get used to it." he said as he continued to look in the space under the desk for a book. He couldn't find his copy of Grimm Studies.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"You heard Ozpin announce me yesterday." he said.

"You know," she said, "You are just like one of my old friends."

"Really?" _Where is that fucking book?_

"Everything about you two seems the same." she said, "Everything except your attitude. You're way more cold than Alexei ever was."

Alexei felt something in his heart. Part pain that she was calling him cold, but part happiness that she was also calling him kind.

"Have you seen my book?" he asked, as he gave up looking in the cubby.

"You mean this?" she pulled the book out from behind her back.

_How did she even?_

He reached for it but she held it away, "Nope, not until you pull down that mask at let me see your face."

He couldn't believe his luck.

"I don't need it anyways." he said as he quickly got up and left.

She watched him go. Why was he so secretive about it? Was it possible that he was Alexei?

She was going to find out right now.

She ran after him. Hearing her, he dropped his bag and began sprinting off as well. He dashed around a corner, causing a rabbit faunus girl to fall over. Behind him Yang had to jump over her to avoid tripping over her. Alexei leaped over a group of students carrying a crate of ammunition and Yang slid under it. She was faster than him and he knew it. He had to think quickly. He noticed the window at the end of the hallway. They were on the sixth floor, but knowing the possible beating that Yang might give him, he liked this idea more.

He held his arms out in front of his face as he dove through the window, the glass shattered on his way through. He quickly turned and used his aura to latch onto the wall and slow his descent. He hit the ground and went into a roll. He ran through the crowd of students that had stopped to watch him. He came to a stop next to the fountain on campus, sure that he had managed to lose her.

When he heard booms in the distance he remembered that he was dealing with Yang. He turned just it time to see her flying towards him with her Ember Celica extended on both arms. She had leapt through the window and used their recoil to keep her going so that she could fly towards him. Sweet dust, Yang was amazing.

He brought up his aura in time to at least make the collision less painful but he was still knocked to the ground and lifted by the collar. Yang pulled off his hood and ripped off the bandana.

She gasped, "It really is you." she looked into the face of the boy that she had gotten undeniably close to over the course of three years. His black hair was messy and his gray eyes looked up at her with a mix of emotions.

"Yeah, it's me." he pulled the hood back over his head and pushed her off. He got to his feet and walked through the crowd.

"How are you alive?" she asked as she followed him, "Where have you been? Why didn't you tell us? Did you know your mother got put in an institution?"

Alexei stopped. His heart skipped a beat. He turned back around

"What?" he asked. Could his decision really have affected her that much?

"Your dad told us." she said, "She took the news pretty badly. She tried to kill herself Alex. Apparently the last conversation you two had didn't go very well. You had stopped talking to her because she didn't want you to be a huntsman."

Alexei put a hand to his face. His mother had tried to kill herself? He had expected her to react poorly, but this?

"The news hit us all pretty hard." she said as she got closer to him, "I got scared that something similar would happen to Ruby. I almost quit Signal." she pulled him into a hug, not one of her trademark bear hugs that left the victim breathless, but instead a tender and soft one. "Not to mention the sadness. We all missed you."

She pulled back and then his jaw felt like it was going to split in two and he felt himself slam into the ground yet again.

"Which is why you better give a damn good reason for lying to all of us!"

"I found my semblance." he said as he rose to his feet.

"But that's great!" she said, "You were always bummed that you didn't have one, so why did you say it like it's not great?"

"Have you heard of the Death Semblance?"

"The really dangerous one?" she asked.

He nodded, "That's the one I have. Last year it activated for the first time and a lot of people got hurt-got _killed_, including Marcus."

"Your friend, Marcus? But he was on the list of casualties from last years initiation." she said as it hit her, "You-"

"Killed him." a silence passed, the crowd had long since dispersed, leaving them alone next to the fountain. The trickling water was the only sound he could hear.

"That's why." he said, "This semblance is uncontrollable. I killed five people and crippled two others. Worse of all, I had to watch. For a full year I was in a cell while Ozpin waited for the semblance to stop being so unpredictable. I have gotten better, after all I don't change every time I stub my toe anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm too dangerous to be around."

"Alex, me and Ruby and just about everyone else here can protect ourselves."

"No!" he shouted, "You haven't seen it! I killed ursai with one hit. I was able kill beowolves with my bare hands. The other students that I killed were no slouches either. They had lasted for _hours_ in the Emerald Forest and I slaughtered them in seconds."

He stared at his hands, "I was a monster. Once I get into combat it turns on. I can't be on a team and I can't let someone get close to me ever again."

"There's no way you'd hurt me or Ruby." said Yang as she reached for his arm.

He pulled away from her before she could touch him, "And I never thought I'd be able to hurt Marcus before I shoved Gray Death's bayonet into his head."

He grabbed the bandana out of her hands and put it back on his face, "You can't tell Ruby or anyone else for that manner. Alexei Seryy is dead. He died last year when that semblance activated. We can't be close again. Ever again."

He turned and began walking.

"I don't want to lose you again."

He stopped and felt as sadness once again clenched at his heart. He didn't like to think how his decision had affected others. He knew what it felt like to experience the loss of someone close.

"It hurt so much the first time. Now that I know you're still alive I'm just supposed to let you disappear again?"

He turned to look back at the girl he had considered to be the closest friend he had ever had. She was probably the strongest person he knew, both physically and emotionally. She was crying. Tears were silently falling down her face and her purple eyes were puffing up. He felt tears fall down his own face and soak into the bandana.

"I don't want that." she pleaded in a quiet and sad voice that made his heart feel like it was going to be crushed.

"I don't either." he said, "But this is how it will have to be." His own voice was quiet.

He walked off and left her to fall to her knees and continue crying silent tears.

* * *

**Already I have chapter two, but only because I already had the first three chapters finished before I posted the first. I'm actually impressed that I actually got a review and more than sixty views within the first week, so thank you to Im Sammeh for the favorite, follow, and review. I guess I'll respond to reviews for the previous chapter in the A/N at the top. Also, I'd like to get as many reviews as possible so that I know what I'm doing right and wrong, otherwise everything will just stay the same. If you don't want to be thanked for your review, then just tell me in the review I suppose.**

**Im Sammeh,**

**I'm happy to know that someone is enjoying the story so far. I guess naming something after death is pretty cliche, but I'm not all that creative and the Semblance was named simply because of its ability to cause a lot of death. Some of it's history gets explained later, but it's all still pretty cliche.**

**I have to say this chapter, despite everything that my editor told me, still feels somewhat off. Maybe because it was difficult to write Yang in a way she's never been shown to act in the series. I hope that none of the canon characters come off as too OOC. Ozpin seems different to me too.**

**Oh well, reviews are always appreciated, expect the third chapter sometime soon, since it's already done and in the fine tuning process. Chapter four after that will take more time, and if Alexei comes off as particularly angsty, then I'm writing him right.**


	3. Anger

Chapter 3: Anger

Ruby was happy. She and Weiss had just patched things up and she had learned that Weiss could be really nice if she wanted to, in her own, Weiss-y way. Ruby continued to study as she happily drank the coffee that Weiss had made her. She looked over at the bunk bed next to her.

Blake was asleep on the bottom bunk, but Yang was nowhere to be seen. Ruby realized she hadn't seen her sister since Port's class. She still couldn't believe that his class had lasted all day. She remembered Yang walking towards that Alexis guy before she herself had ran after Weiss.

Ruby turned back to her books when she heard a door slam, which caused Blake to turn in her sleep. Ruby put her ear to the wall next to her. It was silent until she heard a loud thud and someone, a male, shout, "Damn it!" followed by more fast paced thuds.

Blake turned back over and looked to Ruby.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Ruby turned back to look at her. "I think the guy next door is hitting something. He sounds really mad."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Men always hit things when they're angry."

Another smash sounded, followed by the sound of cracking wood.

"Sounds like he's really angry." she said. "I think I'll ask him what's wrong."

"Go ahead." said Blake as she turned back over, she seemed irritated that someone had interrupted her sleep, "Just don't let him in here."

Ruby put her ear back to the wall heard nothing this time.

On the other side Alexei looked at his own handiwork. He had successfully put a hole through the desk and managed to break the coffee table in half. His knuckles were bloody and probably broken. He had retracted his aura because he wanted to feel the pain. He wasn't sure why he had gone on a rage induced frenzy in his room. Shouldn't he be crying?

He remembered then that this was the way he had become over the past year. Instead of crying he hit things. Every time he became sad he would almost immediately become angry afterwards.

He sat on a chair and began to channel his aura into his aching knuckles in an attempt to heal them.

How could he have forgotten? Yang was much smarter than she let on. She loved playing the role of the dumb blonde but she was far from it. He should have just skipped class and avoided her entirely. He never should have responded. Another image of her crying came into his head. He slammed his fist down on the chair's arm as he remembered that he had been the one who hurt her. Then he remembered that his mother had tried to kill herself in grief over the loss of her child. He grabbed the chair he was sitting on and flung it across the room and into a painting.

He fell to his knees and stared at the floor. The room was starting to look like someone had fought off a burglar. He slammed his own head into the floor. He was rewarded with a migraine. Was it all his fault? Was there a better way he could have done it?

His head snapped to the right when he heard a soft knock on the wall.

"Are you alright?"

It was Ruby. How much had he hurt her as well?

"Stay out of my business." the reply had left his mouth before he even thought.

"Are you sure?"

"Damn it! Yes, I'm sure Ruby!" his face paled. His heart skipped a beat. Did he just fuck up again?

"How do you know my name?" came Ruby's voice, confused.

"I, uh, saw you at the initiation ceremony." he said, praying that she would buy that.

"Oh." she said, "You sound like you need someone to talk to."

"Why are you trying so hard to comfort me?" he asked as he moved to sit against the wall that Ruby was behind, "You don't even know me. I'm a monster."

"No you're not." she said, "We fight monsters remember?"

He gave a short, almost bitter laugh, "You're still so young and innocent. You still see things in black and white. You wouldn't understand."

"Were you hitting things because you're mad at someone else? Or are you mad at yourself?"

He took a moment to think. He knew he was angry, but the fact that it was himself he was angry with hadn't crossed his mind. That must have been why he wanted to feel pain.

"I guess I am mad at myself." he said.

"Why?"

"Long story short, I had to make a decision to either show people around me who I really was and let them hate me, or let them think I was dead." he said, "I chose the second one and that hurt them more than I thought it would."

"I don't think I'd be able to choose."

"I didn't think I could either."

"Then why are you mad? You had to choose."

"If I had let them hate me then maybe I wouldn't have hurt them."

"I think they would have been hurt either way." she said.

"What do you mean?"

"If I knew that somebody close to me had done something that would make me hate them, then I would still be hurt, maybe even more than if I thought they were dead."

He thought it over for a minute. She was right. Either way he would have hurt them. He had just chosen the selfish option of letting them still see him the way he was. It didn't make him feel much better, but at least he understood now.

"Thanks." he said.

"No problem. Do you think you'll be okay now?"

"I doubt it." he said, "But at least I feel a little bit better."

"What's your name?"

He almost said his real name before he remembered, "Alexis Gray."

She was silent for a few seconds before he heard her voice again, "Good night Alex."

He felt his heart stop yet again. She and Yang were the only two that had called him that. Had she been able to figure it out? He tried to put it all out of his head before he walked over to his bed. He lay down and gave the room one last look. It was trashed, but at least there wasn't a lot of blood. He pumped his aura into his aching parts before falling asleep.

* * *

Weiss walked towards the training room with a smile. She was glad that she had managed to make up with Ruby. She hadn't lied. She was going to be the best teammate that Ruby had ever had.

On her walk down the stairs she saw the familiar gray cloak. She decided that if she made up with Ruby, then she should try making up with Alexis.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I acted rude yesterday, but I just wondered-" she stopped as the cloak just moved on past her, completely ignoring her existence.

She made a sound of displeasure and continued down the stairs. Maybe this whole 'become a better person' thing would be more difficult than she thought.

She entered the training room expecting to be alone, but was surprised to see a familiar blonde beauty pummeling a punching bag.

Yang had a look of anger on her face and red eyes as she punched the bag repeatedly. She wasn't even wearing any protection on her hands, but she must have been using her aura since they didn't look damaged. She didn't even notice as Weiss got close enough to admire the display of rage.

Yang continued to punch the bag. One of the chain links holding the thing up snapped and Yang gave the bag one last powerful punch, sending it across the room to send sand spewing everywhere.

Yang wiped some sweat off of her face before turning to grab another bag. Then she noticed Weiss.

"Oh, um, hey Weiss, what's up?" she tried to put on her usual smile and gave Weiss a wave.

"Am I supposed to ignore that performance?"

"What performance?" Yang was pretty good at acting, "I was just practicing."

"If that was just practicing," said Weiss as she pointed at the ruined bag across the room, "I'd hate to see you really trying to destroy something."

"It was nothing." said Yang, "Just blowing off a little steam."

"I'm not very good at these kinds of things," said Weiss as she sat down on a bench and elegantly crossed her legs, "But do you want to talk about it?"

Yang sighed as she put her hand on the punching bag, "You can't tell anyone else, but remember when I told you about Alexei?"

Weiss thought for a moment and nodded.

"I chased down that Alexis guy and tore off his mask," she said, "And it turned out that he is Alexei."

Weiss thought for a moment, "I would think that you'd be happy, but since you're not I'm assuming that something bad happened."

Yang nodded, "You remember how that incident happened a year ago, when five students turned up dead during initiation? Well he left out a lot of details, but he made it sound like he did it. He said he has the Death Semblance."

Weiss' eyebrows went up a bit, "That semblance is famous, or rather, infamous."

"I don't really know much about it." said Yang.

"It is an incredibly rare semblance," said Weiss, "One that has only shown up on record forty-four times. It is almost uncontrollable, anyone who activates it gains tremendous power and uses it to kill anyone around them, friend, enemy, family, lover, it doesn't matter. All they see around them is something to kill."

"But isn't there a way to control it?"

"Only seven are known to have," said Weiss, "He could, but it's highly unlikely. Tell me, how close were you with him?"

"I don't know," said Yang, "Pretty close I guess."

"Well unless if he can find a way to control that Semblance, you won't be able to be close to him without risking your life." said Weiss, "This Semblance has caused hundreds of deaths. Most of its users killed their own families. It's a miracle that he only killed five people."

"I can't imagine what he's going through." said Yang, "I don't know if I could take it."

"Most can't." said Weiss, "Some lost their mind. Some attempted suicide, but the Semblance will always activate if the user is about to die, making it impossible."

"Do you think I can help him?" asked Yang.

"Knowing what's happened to him, he'll never fully recover. The kind of psychological damage that something like this can cause is too large." Weiss said, "Not to mention the fact that he may never trust himself around people ever again."

"I'm going to talk to him in the morning." said Yang.

"It would be a lot safer to just stay away from him." said Weiss, "He's probably still unstable."

"I can't just give up on a friend." said Yang, "I knew him for three years. We spent every day together."

Weiss arched an eyebrow in amusement, "Were you two dating?" she asked.

"No, it wasn't like that." said Yang, "At least, I don't think it was. It was pretty confusing actually."

Weiss saw that her attempt to lighten the mood had failed but she continued, "How so?"

"We didn't like each at first." said Yang, "Signal had this thing where all first years got partnered with a second year. He was my partner. At first we bumped heads a lot. I guess we were both pretty competitive. But after awhile we got used to each other. We would hang out a lot, just the two of us. Sometimes Ruby would join." said Yang.

"Sounds like you two were really close." said Weiss.

"Yeah, but I guess our feelings were really…confusing." said Yang, "Whenever one of us was single, the other would be in a relationship. But our relationships never lasted very long."

"He sounds like he was a lot different from how he is now."

"Yeah," said Yang, "He was. He was outgoing, fun, sometimes he could get as loud as me, but I guess it's like you said. When someone goes through something like he has, it changes them."

Weiss yawned before checking her personal scroll for the time, "It's late." she said, "Come on, we should get to bed, we have class in the morning."

Yang nodded and they walked back to the dorms and up to their room.

"So," Yang spoke. Weiss looked over at Yang. "Did you patch things up with my sis?"

"Yes." said Weiss with a smile. "We talked in the dorm room and I made her some coffee."

"Really?" asked Yang before she put on one of her usual smiles. "Did you two make out?"

Weiss' face turned completely red and she at looked at Yang in shock of her comment.

"We did no such thing!"

Yang giggled before speaking, "Well you did give her coffee. So you must have banged her!"

"You are unbelievable!" Weiss started stomping off to their room with Yang behind her.

"I approve by the way!"

The two quieted down and sneaked into their dorm where Ruby and Blake were both sleeping. Yang got changed and lay down in her bed before falling asleep.

* * *

Alexei opened his eyes to face the wall. His sleep was dreamless yet again. He had always found it odd that he had no nightmares but shrugged it off. He pulled his hands out from under the covers and studied them. They had healed nicely. Only still a little red.

Alexei looked to the clock on his night stand. He had woken up at least an hour earlier than usual. _Weird_ he thought. He looked at his room. Most of the furniture was still broken. He scratched an itch on his face and opened up the mini fridge next to the counter. He pulled out a carton of apple juice. When he closed the fridge's door he looked at the chair next to his bed and sighed.

Sitting in the chair, looking at him with a playful smile, was Yang.

"So, apple juice, huh?" she asked, "You always had this thing for apples. You know what? So does Weiss. I could hook you two up."

Alexei decided to ignore her and poured the juice into a glass. He was about to pick it up and drink but Yang had somehow moved across the room and snatched it away from him.

"Thanks for being such a good host and pouring a drink for your guest." she took a sip. "I was always more of an orange juice kind of girl, but it's nice to add some variety."

He poured another glass and began drinking from it after he put the juice back. Classes would begin in two hours so he made his way over to the TV and turned it on. Just how he hadn't smashed it during his temper tantrum was a mystery.

"Wow!" exclaimed Yang as she stole the remote from him. "You got a TV in your room? Why is Ozpin treating you so well?"

She began flipping through channels as Alexei tried to maintain his calm. She gave up on TV pretty quickly and turned back to him.

"I would put my drink on the coffee table but, uh," she looked at the table which he had broken last night. "It looks like it's half the table it used to be. Get it? Actually it looks like you hosted a fight club in here. Why didn't you invite me? Oh yeah. I forgot. You're trying to be a depressing, jerkass loner now."

He finished his drink and looked over at her.

"Oh stop it Alex." she said with a giggle and a wave of her hand. "Look at a girl like that for too long and you'll make her blush."

"How did you get in here?" he asked with as little emotion as possible.

"You're also pretty forgetful." she pointed at the sliding door that lead to the balcony, which he had forgotten to lock.

"I'll have to make sure to lock it from now on." he said as he got up from the chair and walked over to the fruit bowl to pick up an apple. When he turned around Yang was just about the only thing in his vision. He felt somewhat nervous from her closeness but he tried his best to not let it show.

Clearly it had, because Yang's smirk widened.

"But then I wouldn't be able to come have these visits anymore." she made a fake pout.

"That's kind of the point." he said as he moved back to his chair only for a pair of arms to wrap around his neck from behind.

"You should stop acting like such a downer." she said in a pouty tone.

He tried to free himself from her hold, but it was futile. He knew that she was stronger than him, something he was always embarrassed to admit. He tried walking but she let herself hang limply from his neck. He fell forward with her on top of his back, her arms still around his neck. He tried to ignore the feeling of her breasts against his back, or just how good the messy blonde hair in front of his face smelled.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. The sadness managed to slip into his voice. "I thought I made it clear. You or nobody else can be close to me."

She stayed where she was. She didn't say anything as she laid her head against the back of his neck.

"Because not only do I want my friend back," she said softly, without her playful tone from earlier. "But I can tell that you need someone now more than ever."

He brought his own arms around to hold hers. They laid there like that for awhile. He was just basking in her presence. He didn't realize until now just how much he had missed her. He had had girlfriends in the past and he had liked spending time with them, but there was always something more special about the time he spent alone with Yang. She always showed him that softer, more gentle side that only Ruby got to see.

He enjoyed the sensation of her warm arms against his neck. She always felt really warm to him. Maybe it was because her Semblance had to do with fire. He had always felt cold to her, almost like a dead body.

Despite being sandwiched between the hard floor and her, Alexei was more comfortable than he had been in a year. Her closeness alone seemed to make his worries and fears disappear. For a few moments he forgot about the uncontrollable Semblance and how it had ruined his life and the lives of others.

It ended when his alarm went off, the one that was supposed to wake him up. She got off him, turned off the alarm and was back in her place on top of his back before he could even move.

"Yang." he said quietly.

"Can we just stay like this a little longer?"

"I've got to get ready."

"You're a boy, you shouldn't take too long."

"Yang, you know that if we don't stop we're just going to stay like this for hours."

"Aw, but I like this." she whined as she nuzzled her head against his neck.

"Come on." he said as he slowly tried to lift the two of them up.

Yang got to her own feet and sat in a chair. They talked as he went through his preparations. He asked her how her last year at Signal went. He learned that she had spent it single and was still single, a topic that she brought up herself. She explained to him how Ruby had gotten into Beacon two years early. When the topic of how he spent the year had been brought up he simply replied, "Alone" and left it at that. She understood it was something he didn't want to talk about. By the end he had showered, eaten, and changed from his pajamas to his usual attire. He decided not to wear the uniform, after all, his cloak covered the thing anyways, so it didn't matter.

"I see you still dress the same." she said when he came out of the bathroom. "No color."

He looked at his outfit. It was still the same, thick, gray cargo jeans with black combat boots, a black t-shirt covered by a dark gray jacket and a black tactical vest, with white gloves covering his hands.

"Gray's a color." he said with a smile. "Just not a very well understood one."

She rolled her eyes and spoke again, "Why aren't you wearing a uniform? Don't tell me Ozpin lets you get away with this too."

"Well the cloak covers everything anyway." said Alexei as he pulled the cloak out of the closet. "Does it matter?"

She walked over and grabbed the thing out of his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Are you still going to hide yourself?"

"I don't want Ruby to know." he said.

"That you're alive?" asked Yang. "She'll be overwhelmed with joy to know!"

"She'll also find out that I'm a monster."

"Will you stop it with that crap?" she said. "I thought our little cuddle session over there just proved that you're willing to accept people again. Why are you doing this again?"

He felt his face heat up a bit when she mentioned the 'cuddle session' but he had to maintain his seriousness for this conversation.

"You misunderstood." he said as he took the cloak back and put it on before she could take it back. "I would love to have you back, and maybe you can visit me, but only you. Maybe when I find a way to control this, then I'll think about it, but for now that's off the table."

"And what am I supposed to do?" asked Yang as she crossed her arms. "Lie to my sister? Act like you're a complete stranger? I can't do that."

"Either that or I'll shut you both out completely and never speak to you, or anyone else again." said Alexei as he put the mask on his face.

"I know that won't happen." said Yang as she stared him in the eyes. "I know you'll talk to us eventually."

"Yang, this conversation is over." he said as he moved to the door. "Maybe we'll have it again someday, but for now, please just do as I ask."

He left. She put her back to the door and stared at the floor.

"I missed you." she said. It was quiet, but maybe somebody on the other side would hear her.

"I missed you too." Alexei said. His back was against the same door on the other side.

He stood there for a second before making his way down to hall and to his first class.

* * *

**Chapter 3, containing even more angst and complicated emotions! Though I do feel that this chapter is better than the last. To me, at least, the canon characters felt more in character. My only worry is that I may be making Alexei's character too complicated, though he is in a very complicated situation. If anyone is wondering, this will follow the RWBY plotline with the occasional stray from the story, and considering the trailer that came out yesterday for volume 2, it might stray pretty far. It was still an awesome trailer though.**

**TheNexusEra**

**Yet again, I'm glad to see that someone is enjoying it. I'm happy you said that about the OCxYang pairing. I've read a lot of OC stories here on FanFiction and one of my goals was to make a pairing that played out differently. Hopefully it's still working.**

**roosterteethfanatic**

**I'm glad I PM'd you earlier since I was freaking out that someone was going to claim that I had stolen a character, only to find out that you liked that I was using a Russian name.**

**I'm impressed that I've managed to make over two hundred views already as well as five follows and one favorite. It's always good to know that at least one person is enjoying the stuff that I post up, it let's me now that I'm not wasting any time, and if you think there are parts of the story that are written badly, leave a review, it helps me to fix the bad and make the good better. Chapter four is already part way done so i have no idea when it will come out, but I'm shooting for less than a month. I'll have to hurry before I start college. See you then.**


	4. Bullies

Chapter 4: Bullies

Alexei shook his head as he watched Jaune once again lose a match, this time to Cardin Winchester. It was obvious what everyone thought as they saw it end. Just how the hell had Jaune even made it into Beacon? There was nothing wrong with losing a match, but Jaune had yet to win a single one he had been in. He hadn't even put up much of a fight in any one of them.

Goodwitch gave Jaune a lecture as Alexei noticed that the redhead from JNPR, Pyrrha, looked at Jaune with sad and concerned eyes. After Goodwitch was finished she turned back to Cardin.

"Do you think you can fight another match Mister Winchester?"

Cardin shrugged his massive shoulders, "Sure."

"Then what about you, Mister Gray?" she turned to Alexei. "You haven't fought in a single match. Your grade in this class is still a zero."

The room turned silent. Alexei knew that Goodwitch disliked him. She believed that Ozpin should have left him in his cell. She had been treating him this way ever since the year started. She would ask him to fight a match and he would always refuse. It had become a common thing, but the students always quieted down when it happened due to the high tension in the room.

"Nah," said Alexei. "I think I sprained my ankle getting out of bed."

"What's wrong with you?" asked Cardin. "Afraid I'll beat you?"

"No." said Alexei. "I'm just afraid that if I fight an asshole like you I might just lose control and snap your damn neck."

Cardin's face scrunched up in fury as he stepped toward Alexei. Glynda stood in front of Cardin and stopped him.

"Mister Gray, please keep a hold of your profanity or I will be forced to discipline you."

The bell rang and Alexei rose from his seat and followed the crowd to lunch. He could hear one boy comment on how much he would love to have Goodwitch discipline him.

"Why don't you ever fight?"

Alexei continued to walk as Ruby ran up to him. He had managed to keep his identity secret, but she still kept on trying to talk to him.

"You don't spar, you don't answer questions, you still haven't brought out your weapon, and you still haven't taken off the cloak or mask. Why are you like this?"

"For a lot of reasons."

"Then why don't you tell anyone? Why don't you let anyone close enough to be your friend?"

He spun on his heel so quick that she ran into him. She quickly took a long step back, causing rose petals to fly outwards.

"Why do you even care? Why is everyone so keen on getting to know the real Alexis? I don't want any friends, and I don't have to tell you why, so why don't you just try focusing on your own team instead of random strangers who want nothing to do with you?!"

It had come out a bit harsher than he had meant, but she had been annoying him. She looked up into his eyes, which were practically covered up by the darkness of his hood. She must have not seen what she was looking for, because she looked away. He turned back around and walked away, to the cafeteria, where he would eat his lunch.

He grabbed a sandwich, along with some fruit. He sat in his usual spot, a table in the far corner of the cafeteria. Due to his general antisocial behaviour, and tendency to tell anyone who came near him to go away, he always sat alone. Ruby and a few others had tried, but failed to get him to sit with others. Most of them just wanted to figure him out. To his annoyance, his behaviour and the fact that he was a complete mystery to everyone had actually earned him a small following of a few girls who just wanted to figure out who Alexis really was. Their heads were filled with the notion that underneath the gray cloak was a boy who had been hurt and just needed some love. He hadn't thought that his idea for a cover could backfire so easily. They weren't too big of a problem though. They would mostly just sit and stare and talk about him. None of them had really worked up any courage to make any kind of move. He looked over at the girls who started whispering more when they saw that they had gained his attention. He rolled his eyes and lifted up his cloth half mask for another bite of his sandwich.

He took a look around the cafeteria. Teams RWBY and JNPR always sat together. Their table was usually the loudest. With both Valkyrie and Yang that was no surprise. A few tables away from them was team CRDL in all its glory. Cardin was currently trying to yank out the rabbit ears of some poor faunus girl. He thought her last name was Scarlat or something along those lines. Poor girl reminded him of a faunus girl he had known as a child, but that felt like a century ago, probably because his time in that metal box of a containment cell had felt like century.

Cardin put on an even wider grin when he noticed Alexei was looking at him and his group. Cardin Winchester. His father was the head of a very powerful firearms manufacturer and distributor. His family was essentially the same as the Schnee family except for the fact that one family dealt in dust, and the other in gunpowder weapons. Seeing as how closely those two fields tended to work together the two families had held dealings in the past to work on special weapons and ammunition, but neither had sought to seal the deal. A part of Alexei wondered if the reason Weiss worked so hard to be a huntress was because she feared that if she didn't prove herself to her father then she would get married off to a Winchester boy or any other nobleman's son in order to make a strong business relationship.

Cardin himself was the picture perfect example of what money and power could do to a child. He was filled with ego to point of narcissism, and he always acted like he was the one in control. No doubt he had parental issues, just like any other rich kid. His hatred for faunus probably came from the fact that his father's business was high up on the White Fang's shit list just like the Schnee's. In other words, Alexei had no doubt that Cardin Winchester was a product of his environment, but that didn't mean he didn't hate the prick.

People like him were the reason society would never move forward. With unaccepting bigots such as him and the rest of the upper class and even the White Fang who would much rather generalize and discriminate, everyone would have to focus on the inside of the cities instead of the outside, where the hordes of Grimm sat and happily waited to destroy all that remained of humanity.

He hated that. The war with the Grimm was easy for him to understand. It was Hunters against monsters, simple as that. But when you actually applied morals, things became hard to understand or even choose between. The White Fang had legitimate reasons for being hateful, but did the people they used terrorist actions against really deserve what they got? He didn't like thinking about it. He knew that he definitely disliked those humans who decided to treat others differently based on something as simple as animal traits, but he also hated the White Fang for bringing harm to innocents.

He watched as the rest of the student body filed through the doors to head to their next class. He himself got up as well and put his tray on a rack. He walked through the halls and came across something he knew he had to avoid. Cardin and his gang had the Scarlat girl cornered and were taunting her as well as giving more tugs on her ears. One brought up the fact that they could strip search her for a tail. He tried to walk past as quickly and quietly as possible, but he was noticed and surrounded before he could really do anything.

"You're the asshole who talked a big game in combat training." said Cardin. "So why do you wear all that stuff to hide yourself? Are you just one ugly bastard?"

"I bet he's a freak just like her." said the one with the mohawk as he pointed at bunny girl. She was against a wall, staring at what was happening in front of her.

Alexei silently cursed whatever god had just shit on his day. He was surrounded, and for some reason the hall was completely empty except for the six of them. There was nothing he could do.

"How about we take it off." said the one with his eyes closed. "I bet he's a doggy."

"My money's on fox." said the fourth one with the long hair.

"Take my cloak off and I take your head off." said Alexei.

"There's that mouth again." said Cardin. "Sky, Dove, grab him."

The two on his right and left tried to grab him. He punched closed-eyes in the stomach without realizing that they were all still wearing armor. His fist crunched against the metal and flared in pain. The four laughed harder as the one with the long hair grabbed his left arm. He kicked that one in the knee, and actually succeeded in doing some damage. Long-hair fell the to the ground and let go of Alexei's arm. Alexei brought around his unhurt fist and connected it with closed-eyes' face. He felt his legs go out from under him as mohawk kicked him in the back of the knees. Alexei fell to the ground where Cardin pinned him down.

Alexei felt something build up inside him. Cardin pulled up his hood as mohawk pulled off the cloth mask. The four gasped. Alexei had lost control. They didn't see a faunus like they had expected.

"What the fuck is wrong with his teeth?" asked long-hair

"And his eyes." added mohawk.

"What the hell kind of faunus is he?" asked Cardin.

Alexei answered Cardin's question by pulling him closer to deliver a head butt that left him dazed. Alexei kicked the stunned brute off of him and looked at the other three. They looked down at him and slowly got into fighting stances. Alexei jumped to his feet and brought around a punch hard enough to dent closed-eyes' armor and send him backwards into a trophy display. Long-hair tried to charge him but Alexei grabbed the boy by his legs and threw him at mohawk. Mohawk managed to dodge but didn't manage to dodge Alexei, who dashed forward and gave him a punch to the stomach.

Alexei turned to look at Cardin who was beginning to shake off his daze. Closed-eyes was also pulling himself out of the display. Alexei stood in place as Cardin ran over and punched him. Cardin's huge fist didn't even reach Alexei's face, his pitch black aura was visibly wrapped around Cardin's fist.

"What the hell?!" Cardin tried to pull out his fist. Closed-eyes got behind him and tried pulling as well.

Alexei squeezed the aura around Cardin's fist, slowly crushing it. Cardin started to struggle more as the aura threatened to break his hand. Alexei stumbled forwards as something struck him from behind. He turned to see that mohawk had slammed a chair into his back. He smashed the thing over Alexei's head only to have it break in half due to Alexei's aura taking a sharpened shape above his head.

"Shit." muttered mohawk as he stared at the two pieces of chair in his hands.

Alexei grabbed him by the face and slammed him into the still-struggling Cardin. They both stumbled backwards. Long-hair jumped on Alexei from behind and punched him in the back of the head. Alexei reached up and threw him to the ground. Long-hair looked up at him as he kicked him into the wall next to the still trembling bunny. He slumped over and stopped moving. The other three looked at their unconscious teammate and then back to their enemy. They charged him, all three at once. Alexei stepped to the side and grabbed mohawk by his mohawk and punched him in the chest hard enough for him to lose his breath. He then threw him into closed-eyes. The two hit the ground. Alexei side-stepped Cardin and kicked them both in the head.

Cardin looked at the three members of his team. All were bruised and bloody and unconscious. Cardin pulled out his large mace.

"What the fuck are you?"

Alexei's grin widened.

Cardin lifted the mace over his head with both hands and ran at Alexei, who stood still. Cardin brought the mace down. Alexei had caught it by its massive head with one hand. He yanked it away and thrust its blunt head into Cardin's stomach. Cardin slumped to the ground and stayed there, until Alexei hit him in the side of the head with the mace's handle and knocked him out. Alexei's gaze slipped over to the Scarlatina girl.

She was sat against the wall with her legs brought up and her whole body was trembling. She looked up from Cardin and to Alexei with wide eyes. He slowly walked up to her and dropped the huge mace with a massive thunk. He tried not to, but he had no control. She was going to wind up just like the dog faunus a year ago. He couldn't even close his eyes or look away. He stood over her shaking form and reached down to stroke her hair. The smile on his face somehow grew wider than it already was, and the fangs parted slightly in anticipation of plunging themselves into the girl's flesh.

"Enough!"

The voice had come through some device Alexei couldn't see. He had grown used to hearing Ozpin's voice through radios and intercoms, so he recognized it quickly. Before he could do anything, he felt himself get pulled down and into a hole which closed up before he could do a thing.

"I would have prefered if you would have let me do that sooner, sir."

Even muffled, he could easily recognize Goodwitch's voice. From the sound of high heels hitting the ground he guessed that she must have been right above him.

"The poor Scarlatina girl looks as though she may never recover."

He could hear her helping the rabbit girl to her feet above him.

"I wanted to test something Ms. Goodwitch."

"And what was that?"

"Well he gave team CRDL a massive beating but they appear to still be alive, perhaps he was at least able to stop himself from killing them."

"Maybe, but what are we going to do with him down there?"

"The only way we know how to get him to deactivate the semblance is by having him either use up a great deal of his aura, or getting bored. You do remember what that particular trap he is currently in is capable of, correct?"

"Of course sir, I oversaw the construction of all the traps in this facility years ago."

"Good, and do remember, I only want him to calm down, not have every bone in his body pulverised. Don't crush him to death, only so much that his aura drains radically."

"Yes sir."

The next thing Alexei knew, the darkness around him was squeezing him from two sides. His aura immediately kicked in and tried to push against it. It didn't take long before he felt himself get completely drained and shortly after, he passed out.

* * *

"Sir, we need to take action on this matter."

Goodwitch stood in front of Ozpin's desk in his clocktower office. She refused to sit, which partially annoyed him. It had been a few hours since Alexei's incident in the hallway with team CRDL and Velvet Scarlatina. CRDL was put into the infirmary. None had been given any injuries that would put them out for longer than a day or two. Their auras had sustained the majority of the damage and the Beacon infirmary was more like a small hospital with its own doctors and nurses on twenty-four hour duty. Alexei himself was back in the basement cell he had resided in for the year before. The only doctor that Ozpin let watch over Alexei was Pete S. Ascle, one of the best at Beacon.

"Go on." said Ozpin. He leaned back in his chair while Glynda spoke.

"You know that fighting is an expellable offense."

"And while nothing would make me happier than to kick out Cardin and his team of bullies, but his father is a very generous benefactor. He donates weapons, supplies, ammunition, and money to the school. While Cardin is the youngest of his sons, I am sure that his expulsion would influence Mr. Winchester's opinion of this school. That's why I've allowed them to get away with all the trouble they've caused."

"We have no choice other than to accept any harm he brings." It was more of a statement than a question, nevertheless, Ozpin answered.

"There is always a choice, however, I will choose to let my students become subject to Cardin's bullying. In the end, they'll grow stronger because of it, and we are going to desperately need those supplies for the coming war."

"Then what about Mr. Seryy?"

Ozpin gave sigh and leaned forward in his chair to rest his arms on his desk.

"We've had this conversation before Glynda."

"But hasn't this most recent incident proven that he has no control over himself? The poor Scarlatina girl was a complete mess. He almost treated her the same as Ms. Perra before I stepped in." Glynda's composure became less professional as she continued.

"And yet he was able to stop himself from killing the members of team CRDL."

"Maybe this time, but what about next time?"

"We need to hope that he gains control before next time."

"We can't just let him wander freely without control."

"You saw what he was like in that cell." said Ozpin. He pushed his spectacles further up the bridge of his nose. "Nine months the semblance would take control at completely unexpected times. The last three months when we allowed him to be outside with supervision, he hardly ever let it take control. In any case, I've called on someone to help. An old student, I believe you still remember them."

"You can't be speaking of team HRSE."

"I am."

"What deal did you make with them?"

"They will spend some time here, after a particular mission they took on recently, and Eren will try to assist Alexei in controlling his semblance while the others teach here."

"If there's anyone I'd be more uncomfortable to have in this school than Mr. Seryy, it'd be Mr. Muerte."

Ozpin smirked as he finished off the contents of his mug.

"Don't worry Glynda, Hana tells me that Eren has mellowed out, apparently he's even taken to shaving his horns."

Ozpin's scroll lit up and vibrated. He picked up the device and pressed the green button to receive the voice message. On the other end was Dr. Ascle.

"He's waking up."

Ozpin closed the scroll and rose from his chair. He picked up his cane and motioned for Glynda to follow him. As they passed the threshold of the door, Glynda turned to look back into the office and up at the turning gears that filled up the upper half of the office. Ozpin gave her a glance with a raised eyebrow. Glynda only shrugged and continued with Ozpin before closing the door.

After they had left, a figure moved from its hiding spot on top of one of the gears and dropped to the floor below.

Blake looked around the office out of habit to make sure that she truly was alone. She moved quickly and quietly over to a filing cabinet in one corner of the room. Inside she dug through all folders marked with A. When she didn't find anything she looked under the G's. Again she found nothing, she thought for a moment and then looked through all the folders underneath S.

She found the file she was looking for and placed every piece of paper on the floor and took pictures of them with personal scroll she had smuggled into the school. Some pictures were disgusting even to her. Humans that had been killed and maimed, and a faunus girl who had a nasty, mouth-shaped tear on her neck. Once she had taken clear pictures of every item inside, she put every paper back into the file in the exact order she had found them in and placed the file into the place she had taken it out of. She gave one last look around the office before using Gambol Shroud as a grappling hook to get back onto the moving gears and move out of the skylight she had gotten in through.

* * *

Alexei had decided that if some divine being did indeed exist, then he was its plaything. All he had wanted to do was lie low, and get through Beacon and become a huntsman without anyone from his past learning about the horrible monster that he was, but that was apparently far too much to ask. His second day Yang had discovered him, mostly due to Ozpin's sabotaging his plan with a completely obvious alias. Then Ruby had decided she was going to get Alexis to be a more friendly person, and Yang had been relentlessly trying to get him to open up. And now he dealt with the repercussions of this team CRDL fiasco.

It had been two days and the entire school knew what had happened. The story changed every time he heard it. He was either a white knight who had come to the rescue of the poor, defenseless Velvet and honorably fought all four members of team CRDL, or he was a deceitful faunus who had schemed with Velvet to lure CRDL into a trap and mercilessly beat them into the ground. Now it seemed that the faunus and faunus-loving students regarded him with some respect and increased interest, the faunus-hating students gave him hateful or fearful looks, and the students who didn't give a fuck still didn't give a fuck. He wasn't even able to say that Velvet was better off. She was still picked on and ignored. Worse yet, every time she saw Alexei she usually bolted off. Team CRDL had a similar reaction.

He was seated in the library, it was a Saturday, a day when the library was entirely empty. Almost the entire student population had gotten rides to Vale. The rest were inside playing video games. Alexei was only in the library because he had to pick up a book on the human-faunus war for a paper in Bartholomew's class. He was one of a few other students inside the bookroom. The history section was at the very back of the room, and when he found a book that would be useful he felt something press up against his back. It was definitely the end of a blade.

"Alexei Seryy, current alias, Alexis Gray. One of two living people to have the Semblance of Death."

The voice was obviously feminine, but that didn't at all affect how threatened Alexei felt with the sharp point to his back, he was no sexist, after all.

"What do you want?"

"We're going to sit in those chairs over there, and talk like we just met in the library and are having a nice chat."

A pale hand came into his vision and pointed to a set of lounge chairs with a table in between the two. He began walking to the chairs with the blade still at his back. When he reached the chair on the right, he sat in it and turned to watch as his captor sat in the chair beside him. He recognized her immediately.

"You're on Yang's team, Blake something."

She had holstered the weapon and seemed to be scanning him for any suspicious behaviour. The way she sat could be seen as relaxed, but she was in a position to easily react to any hostile actions.

"Belladonna." She said.

She pulled out a scroll and placed it in front of him. He looked at her and then at the scroll before picking it up. When he opened it he almost grew sick. The scroll had pictures of several pieces of paper from a folder, including several photographs. All of them were of the students that he had hurt over a year ago, including the members of his own team.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"What are your motives?"

Alexei looked away from the scroll and to Blake, who was still watching him.

"My motives?"

"I studied over those documents for the past two days. Either you really believe that you can do something to control that semblance, or you actually think that you can do some good with the destruction that you can cause."

"Why should I tell you anything? You just gave me all of your evidence."

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Do you really think that's the only scroll that I have those pictures on?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"You seem to be close to Yang, and your semblance is uncontrollable according to everything in those documents. I want to know whether or not you're a threat to my team and everyone else here."

"I am."

She seemed surprised that he gave such a quick and honest answer. She moved her hand around to her back and grasped the hilt of her weapon.

"Then why shouldn't I just kill you right here and now?"

"Because you can't."

"What do you mean?"

Alexei sighed and put down the scroll. He leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling.

"No one can, not even me. I've tried, but the semblance wouldn't let me. Not only do I not have control over it, it's like it has control over me."

She was silent. Alexei continued.

"I killed five people, no, I slaughtered them. Each was just as good as you. What makes you think that you could kill me alone, if I was able to beat two teams in seconds."

She gave no response. Instead she picked up the scroll and put it away. She rose from her chair and looked down at Alexei.

"Maybe I should have trusted Yang. She's right. You look like the semblance has destroyed you more than anyone else."

Alexei watched her as she walked away and through the bookshelves. He sighed and lifted himself up. He stopped by the librarian and checked out the book. When he made it to his dorm room, he could already tell that someone was inside, and he had no doubt about who it was.

Yang was on his couch, she was laying on it in her tank top and shorts. She was watching something on the television. It looked like an action movie. Something about the incident in Littletown, some village that had gotten overrun by Grimm and barely got saved by two teams of hunters.

"What excuse do you even give your teammates so that you can hang out here?"

Yang shrugged.

"Ruby and Weiss went out to Vale with JNPR and Blake said she had to do something. Figured I might as well stay over here and hang with my favorite loner."

Alexei put his cloak on the rack and sat in the lounge chair.

"Did Blake ask you about me?"

Yang sat up and looked at him. She tried to put on an innocent face as she answered him.

"I forgot to mention that. She asked me about you last night and well, I told her about who you were."

"Didn't I tell you not to tell anyone?"

"Well Weiss knows too."

"What about it being a secret do you not understand?! Are you going to tell Ruby too?"

Yang dropped the the innocence face and took on an indignant expression.

"Don't be a jerkass! I needed to talk to someone to talk to after I found you and ice queen was the only one there. Blake put me up for interrogation last night. I didn't tell her much. And you know how dense Ruby can be most of the time."

Alexei rested his head on the back of the chair and spoke.

"Whatever."

"Now that we've yelled at each other I think it's time we cuddled and made up." said Yang. She patted the area on the couch next to her for added effect.

"No thanks."

"You think you have a choice."

The next thing Alexei knew, he was pulled onto the couch and wrapped in Yang's arms. He protested and complained before accepting it, but he enjoyed it the entire time.

* * *

Eren Muerte awoke when a magazine hit him in face. He blew the thing off his face and looked at the person responsible. It was Hana. She was dressed in her usual combat gear. All white with the crown on her head that he still thought was ridiculous.

"It's 2 pm. We're going out for a mission today, do you plan on getting up sometime?"

Eren's only response was to moan and lift his head up. He was sprawled out on the couch in their team's main area. He yawned and sat up. He looked down at the foot of the couch and picked up a bottle of whiskey that had fallen over. He swallowed the last few drops and threw the thing behind him.

"Have you always been such a bitch, or have I just now noticed?"

Hana looked entirely unimpressed. She walked back and picked up the empty bottle and put it in the garbage before throwing Eren his usual combat outfit.

He yawned again and rubbed at one of the nubs above his eyebrow that were his horns in their shaved state.

"You'll have to start a new sleeping schedule," said Hana. "Ozpin called me last night, he wants us to teach at the academy for a bit."

"Fuck that."

"I'm your leader, and you'll do it."

"I hated that shit school. The only reason I passed was because the headmaster before Ozpin was scared shitless of me. What the hell makes you think that I'd be a teacher?"

"You won't be teaching a class, Ozpin's not that stupid. The other three of us will be teaching. You'll be helping some kid named Alexei."

"Is he 'special needs'?" Eren added air quotes as he got up and changed his pants.

"Apparently he's like you."

Eren stopped and laughed as he pulled on his shirt and long coat. His pants and coat were both a pale yellowish-green and his shirt was black.

"Like me?"

"He has the Death Semblance too."

Eren gave off an open-mouthed smirk and pulled out his weapon in it's compact form.

"Maybe this could be interesting."

* * *

**And there's chapter 4. I was originally going to introduce all of team HRSE (pronounced 'horse') much later on in one go, but now I've decided to introduce them slowly over the next few chapters. They do each have their own color and the team is a reference to a certain group. Honestly, this chapter felt weak to me. Writing the whole part that involved Blake was incredibly hard to write for some reason, so it got cut short. Hopefully five will be easier.**

**To both TheNexusEra and Infernape.**

I responded to both of you in PMs. Hopefully this chapter addresses the issues you two voiced in your reviews and PMs.

**Chapter five should be up eventually. I'm hoping to get as far as I can before I have to start college in August.**


	5. Weakness

Chapter 5: Weakness

Alexei usually wasn't one to sleep through a class, Port was an exception, but not Professor Oobleck. While the man was ridiculously eccentric, history was always a favorite of Alexei's. It was a collection of interesting stories that had actually happened at some point in time, and as Oobleck liked saying, it had a habit of repeating itself. That didn't change the fact that Yang had kept him up all night trying to wrestle with him, saying that he needed the exercise after all the physical classes he had been skipping. It had left him exhausted, and he hadn't managed to catch up on sleep in Port's class today. Now every time he closed his eyes, he would fall asleep for a few minutes until something woke him up.

This time it was when Professor Oobleck yelled at Arc about finally answering a question. Alexei watched as Jaune fumbled about, trying to figure out the answer that Nikos was trying to sign him from across the room. Jaune's amazing guess was binoculars. The only real mystery was just how Jaune had gotten into Beacon. It was the only academy that trained hunters in all of Vale. Jaune's knowledge of, well, anything hunter related seemed far lower than even a freshman in one of the many combat schools that came before someone could get into Beacon. Not even status alone could get someone into this school. While Cardin and his team seemed rather incompetent, even they were above average fighters, Jaune on the other hand, seemed like a stereotypical nerd. The only difference was that Jaune knew nothing on the scholarly side of Beacon's studies either. Maybe he was secretly a killing machine like Alexei, only hiding himself so that he-oh who was Alexei kidding? The sandwiches he ate at lunch seemed to put up a better fight than Jaune, at least they made him bite his cheek on occasion. Alexei pondered this as he heard Cardin give a response to Professor Oobleck's question.

"Well I know it's a lot easier to train an animal, than a soldier."

Alexei's eyes flicked over to Cardin. Very few times did he ever feel the true desire to kill someone, ironically enough. Right now as he looked at Cardin in all his smugness the only thought running through his head was how much he wanted to use Gray Death to wipe the grin off of Cardin's face, or better yet, take the head off his shoulders. He hadn't even known his hand was moving before he caught himself halfway through pulling Gray Death out of his cloak. He stopped and looked to Professor Oobleck. When facing the man from the front you could never tell where he was looking, due to the constant sheen on his glasses, but you could always tell when he was looking at you. It almost felt like he was looking into your soul, and you could never tell what he thought of it due to the lack of emotion on his face. Right now however, Professor Oobleck was shaking his head ever so slightly, and Alexei could tell it was directed at him.

He reholstered Gray Death under his cloak and got back into a reclined position in his seat. He had never seen Oobleck fight, and he wasn't sure he wanted to observe it first hand. The series of events afterward weren't nearly as satisfying as Alexei's original plan, but watching Belladonna and Nikos insult Cardin while Oobleck told him to take his seat was at least slightly entertaining. Oobleck announced that he was going to have Cardin and Jaune stay behind after class. He passed by Alexei during an in-class assignment and told him to wait in the hall after class until he was done with the other two.

Once class was over Alexei walked into the hall and leaned against the wall. He watched team JNPR minus its leader walk out. Nikos told the other two to go on while she waited for Jaune. She leaned against the wall across from the door. Alexei hoped that she would just wait, but that was crushed when she turned to him and spoke.

"So why does Professor Oobleck want to see you too?"

"Isn't it a bit rude to ask the business of someone you don't even know?"

Alexei wasn't in the best of moods, but when he saw that he was in danger of turning Pyrrha Nikos into an unnecessary enemy, he decided to stop being a total ass.

"I see, I didn't mean-"

"It's fine." said Alexei. "He caught me pulling my weapon after that comment that Cardin gave. I imagine it's about that."

She looked at him as though she was changing her mind about him.

"I heard about what happened between you and his team a few days ago."

"You and the entire school."

"Helping out Velvet was a good thing to do."

"So that's her name. I wish I could say I was being a hero, but that was just a case of right place, wrong time. Didn't mean I didn't like beating the hell out of him."

"Why do you hate him?"

"One of few things that I can't stand in this world is a fucking racist." Alexei kicked at a piece of trash on the ground. "You should hate someone because of who they are, not what they are. People like him disgust me."

"I wouldn't put it as harshly, but I agree." Pyrrha smiled a bit. "I had thought you were a little unlikable at first, I'm glad you're not as bad as you try to make yourself seem."

Alexei looked at her and then back down at the piece of trash.

"Yang seems to spend quite a bit of time with you, are you two dating?"

In the past, Alexei's face would have heated up at the question, but after being asked it a couple dozen times, he had gotten used to it.

"No, or at least that's my side of the story."

"The way she looks at you and talks about you says differently."

"It's just, really complicated. I don't know how I feel. Besides, who are you to question me when you have an obvious thing for Jaune?"

Now Pyrrha's face turned a few shades similar to her hair color.

"I do not!"

"Then why are you standing out here waiting for him?"

"I want to help a friend in need!"

"You look at him like he's either the best guy ever, or a piece of meat."

"What!?"

Alexei could only laugh. Something he only did in the presence of Yang. It felt good to talk to someone in a friendly and non-flirting way again. He had missed it. After a little more flustering, Pyrrha managed to calm herself down and talk.

"Anyways, why don't you sit at our table sometime? Ruby tried to get you to, and you're always welcome."

"That's not something we should talk about."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated."

Pyrrha gave him a long look, like she was trying to figure out what it was. She had to look away though when Cardin and Jaune walked through the door. Cardin pushed Jaune to the ground and started walking away until he noticed Alexei leaning against the wall and staring at him. Alexei pulled up on the cloth mask to show off his smile. While he was sure it was still nowhere near as impressive as the one he wore when his semblance took control, it was still enough to make fear show up on Cardin's face. He turned and began walked down the hall while trying to look as though Alexei hadn't scared him shitless.

"Dude, that's creepy."

He looked down to see Jaune on the floor, in the process of being helped up by Pyrrha. Alexei let the half mask fall back down to cover his face again as the two stood back up.

"You know, I really will break his legs." said Pyrrha.

Jaune said nothing as Alexei spoke.

"Not if I do first."

Jaune looked at Alexei and looked as though he was going to try introducing himself to Alexei for the second time, if it weren't for Pyrrha exclaiming that she had an idea before she promptly grabbed Jaune by the wrist and ran off with him so fast that his feet left the ground.

"You may come in now Mister Gray."

Alexei got off the wall and walked into the classroom, making sure to shut the door behind him.

"In private, you can call me by my real name."

He sat in front of Oobleck's desk and leaned back in the chair. Oobleck faced him, Alexei still couldn't see his eyes, perhaps he wore the glasses for intimidation.

"Very well, Mister Seryy."

"What did you want to talk about Professor?"

"Are you in control, Alexei?"

Alexei left his eyes drift off to gaze out of a nearby window. He thought before answering.

"Yes."

"Then why were you about to pull out your weapon in my class today?"

"It was because of what that ba- what Cardin was about to say."

Oobleck also leaned back in his chair. He seemed far more laid-back than earlier. Almost as if the caffeine had left his body entirely.

"I admit that Mister Winchester made an unsavory remark today, but to react with violence so quickly is a tad bit of overkill, especially with one having a condition such as you."

"Forgive me sir, I've had...bad encounters with people like him in the past."

"People like him?"

Alexei let his eyes study the desk in front of him as he recalled pieces of his past.

"Faunus haters." he took a deep breath. "I'm not faunus myself, of course, but I had a faunus friend in elementary school. Her name was Vixen. I guess I had a crush on her back then. She would constantly get bullied, I tried standing up for her as much as I could, but it was me and her against almost a dozen at a time. I met her for the first time like that, when we were eight, it was only two bullies then, and I managed to fight both of them off. I only noticed the fox ears on her head after they were gone, but I didn't let that get in the way of a friendship."

"What happened to her?"

Alexei breathed again before responding.

"Nobody knows how it happened, but one day in middle school, they found her body on a playground with a bunch of dead human kids. Official report said that it was beowolves that had somehow got in. She was walking home from school. It was the same route we usually took. I can't remember what I was doing at that time, but it doesn't matter. I wasn't there. Maybe I could have done something. Now that I know I have this semblance it makes it even worse. I know I could have fought off a few beowolves."

"I see. Did they ever figure out how a pack of beowolves made it into the city?"

"No. I doubt they ever will. If you don't mind me asking, why are you so curious professor?"

"I have been curious about you for some time. Ever since I assisted the two girls that were maimed as a result of your semblance's activation. You've changed greatly since then."

"What do you mean?"

"The Alexei back then was far more afraid, now you're at least trying to make friends, not to mention the relationship that you appear to have with Miss Xiao Long."

"Not that I had much of a choice."

Oobleck either didn't hear him, or just didn't acknowledge the statement. "And your semblance seems to have mellowed out a bit."

"What?"

"Ozpin didn't need to tell Port and I that your semblance activated during that fight with team CRDL. The entire school could feel that massive increase in aura."

"What did you mean when you said that its mellowed out? I almost killed Velvet."

"But you didn't kill any members of team CRDL. It would appear to me that not only has your semblance begun to become slightly less aggressive, you yourself seem to be more aggressive."

Alexei was silent. He hadn't noticed it at all.

"What do you think that means professor?"

"Perhaps you're rubbing off on your semblance, and vice versa. It could be possible that you gain full control of the semblance once the two of become completely one in the same, of course the opposite could be true as well. Either way, I would advise you to proceed with caution in the coming weeks."

"What do you think is causing the semblance and I to...merge?"

"I cannot answer that, unfortunately. The only other one with the Death Semblance who I've had a full conversation with was Eren Muerte, I'm sure you've heard of him. He's the fourth member of team HRSE."

"I'm pretty sure everyone in Vale has heard of team HRSE, professor."

"Anyways, anytime he was asked on how he controlled it, he would always respond, 'I've always been able to.' He was one of very few with the semblance to actually be examined, but the few times he allowed us to analyze him ended in few discoveries. They were all things that you yourself found out when your semblance first activated."

"Why are you so interested in all this professor?"

Professor Oobleck smirked, the first piece of emotion Alexei had ever seen on his face.

"I am currently watching history being made before my very eyes, I find it fascinating. You wouldn't be the first to gain full control over this semblance, but perhaps your struggles can be recorded and help others in the future."

"I see."

The professor rose from his chair and took a drink from his mug.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some business to take care of."

The professor bolted out of the room so fast, Alexei was surprised that there wasn't a puff of smoke left in his shape. Alexei got out of the chair and looked out the window. It was night already. He remembered that Yang had to do some project with Blake so he decided to make his way to the roof. He saw Pyrrha walking away from the stairwell, but he could see tears in her eyes and decided it was best to leave her be. Maybe she had taken Jaune to the roof. Did he jump? Was that why she was so sad? Alexei decided to get up the stairs two at a time to see if that had actually happened. Instead, he found Jaune on his back trying to get his breath back.

Jaune looked up at Alexei standing in the doorway and got to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head before speaking.

"Uh, hi. Alexis, right?"

"Yeah."

The silence that followed was so awkward it made Alexei shiver. He decided to kill it with some conversation.

"So, why were you on the ground?"

"Uh, no reason."

"And why was Pyrrha crying?"

"Pyrrha was...crying?"

Alexei walked over and sat on the edge of the roof. His legs dangled over the edge as his cloak danced in the light wind.

"What happened up here?"

"Uh, it's a little-"

"Complicated?"

"Yeah."

Jaune walked over to try to sit next to Alexei, but the view over the side made him nervous, so he settled for sitting criss-cross a few feet away from Alexei.

"I have no room to talk here, but maybe you should try to let her help you with whatever it is."

"Not you too, you don't even know what's going on! And plus, you don't let anyone near you! Ruby tried a bunch, but even she wasn't able to get through to you. Yet you let Yang into your room."

"How does everyone know about me and Yang anyways?"

"Pyrrha noticed that she has your room code and brought it up at lunch, apparently Blake, Ren, and Weiss already knew but never brought it up themselves. Anyway, you don't even know what I'm going though."

Alexei smirked and gave a light laugh.

"Neither of us can understand the other, huh? Then I guess we should stop trying."

"I guess."

The two were silent again. This silence wasn't quite as awkward as the first time, but it was obvious that neither could come up with something to say.

"Uh, I need to go do something." Jaune got to his feet and turned to face Alexei. "It was nice to actually know that there's a person under that scary cloak though, I guess I'll see you around."

Alexei looked up at Jaune. He had his hand out. Alexei grabbed the other boy's hand with his gloved one and shook it. The two stayed in that position awkwardly for a few seconds before both drew their hands back. Jaune backed up and gave a wave before he turned and walked through the door and went down the stairs.

Alexei turned his head back to look at the ground below him, and his legs dangling over the edge, just an easy push away from being knocked over and sent plummeting into the unforgiving ground below him. He entertained himself with idea of whether or not gravity's acceleration over the length of the ten or so stories would be enough to shatter his semblance's aura and cause him to turn into grass pizza. Maybe he'd be able to find a physics professor on campus that could answer that question, then again, even he didn't know how much damage his aura could take when his semblance had been activated. It seemed random. He had withstood the attacks of countless grimm in the Emerald Forest, yet the other day, the floor trap hadn't taken much time at all to completely bust through, or maybe his semblance had just deactivated itself. Maybe it could have been connected to all the things Oobleck had been saying.

He thought back to the hellish nine months he had spent in the prison cell beneath the school. The semblance would activate at random times, continuously taking control, in and out he would lose control. Then, all of sudden, it just stopped. They found that after that, the semblance would only activate during combat, and only then. What the hell did it all mean?

"Alexei?"

He turned around at the sound of his name. He recognized the voice. It was Yang. She walked through the door and onto the roof.

"What are you doing at that ledge?"

"Thinking of ending this horrible existence."

She looked at him with an unimpressed expression.

"Yeah, right."

Alexei turned back to stare out ahead of him.

"Didn't you have a project with Blake tonight?"

"We finished early, I looked for you in your room, but you weren't there. I ran into Jaune in the hall and asked if he knew where you were, he said you were still on the roof."

She walked up to the ledge and sat next to him. She leaned up against him, her head fit perfectly in the junction between his neck and shoulder. He sighed. It was one of content, but he tried his best to make it sound like one of annoyance.

Yang giggled in return.

"You know that you'll never be able to push me away."

"Yeah."

He hadn't even realized that his hand was firmly wrapped around Yang's until he felt her squeezing it. On instinct he squeezed back.

"Why won't you let me in?"

"All my semblance can do is kill, it can't protect."

Yang pushed him down on his back and straddled him. She put her hands on either side of his neck and looked down into his eyes. His hood had come off at some point and she ran a hand through his brown hair.

"I think we both know how we feel by now."

He didn't respond, all he could do was stare into her violet eyes. His heart was beating fast as she stared back into his gray eyes. He could feel her fingers as they pulled down his cloth mask past his chin. She started to move downwards as her eyes closed. He found that his own eyes were closed as well.

Soon enough, he felt it. Her lips against his. It sent a wave of emotions through him. He had kissed girls before, but this was the best kiss he'd ever had. Her lips were soft and felt perfect against his. The kiss was only for a few seconds, but it felt far longer to Alexei. Yang broke it and and moved back up to look into his eyes. A small smile formed on her lips. Alexei looked into her eyes again, but he couldn't return the smile. He gently pushed so that she would move off of him. He sat up and rose to his feet.

"Yang, I'm...not ready."

"Why? We can both feel it. We've both felt it this entire time even if we didn't know what it was. Or...do you not feel the same way?"

Her voice got much quieter towards the end, and she looked at Alexei with eyes that seemed to beg for an answer.

"I...I don't know Yang. I think I do, but…"

"Your semblance?"

Alexei turned to face her full on and tried to speak to her reasonably.

"Yang, I can't let us get that close until I can control this semblance."

Yang's eyes started to harden up as she stood as well.

"I'm already around you everyday! It hasn't come out once around me! Why can't you see that it doesn't seem to want to hurt me, or anyone else!? And that I don't care what it's made you do!"

"Because I didn't think I would ever hurt Marcus, or Jessica, or that Olivia girl! But I did! I won't let myself do that to you!"

"Have you ever considered that I could protect myself!? That everyone here can!? Why are you so afraid!? Are you afraid of your semblance, or your feelings!?"

Alexei backed up from her. Both of them, though it took some time for Alexei to realize it, were crying. Both were shaking. He could hardly breathe, he had never been this emotional in all his life.

"I don't know dammit! I'm...I'm just not ready."

Yang walked up to him and reached for his arm, resting her hand on it gently. Her eyes were already starting to get red from all the tears running down her face.

"Why not?"

"I just-I don't know. I'm sorry, I just...need to sort all of this out first, then...maybe then I'll be ready."

He used his hand to softly take hers off his arm. She let him and gave him a gentle hug.

"I'll wait for you then."

"Thank you."

Alexei wasn't sure how long they stood in that hug. It was Yang who spoke first.

"It's late Alex, we need to get back to our rooms."

"Yeah."

It would be at least thirty minutes until they separated and made their way back inside.

* * *

Eren yawned and looked out of the window next to him. He was on a train outfitted for pummeling through hordes of grimm. The thing was so massive it took up two tracks and had armor on every inch. Hana came and sat in the set of seats facing him. Both were in their combat gear.

Hana had her bow in the seat next to her. It wasn't very heavily modified. It was just a recurve bow made out of more modern materials. The most modern things she carried were the multiple quivers and the arrows within. Two quivers on her back and one lower, on her right hip. He still couldn't quite figure out how many arrows she had, or how many different types, then again, he didn't really care.

"Where's menstruator and mutey?"

Hana gave him a disapproving look and took out a book.

"How are you still so childish after all these years? I'm surprised that after all this time, we haven't killed you."

Eren gave a light laugh.

"Like any of you could, anyways, why the fuck did I have to get up so early if I have to wait for this, when we're waiting for them?"

"It's not like the Grimm are going anywhere."

"Which reminds me, why the fuck are we here?"

Hana sighed and put her book down beside her.

"I'm not surprised that you didn't listen the first time, honestly, if it weren't for your semblance, I would have kicked you out of this team graduation day."

"You know, that really fucking hurts, like, that stings, why are you such a bitch to me?"

"_Anyways_ the Schnee Dust Company has recently acquired all the assets of the Grimoire Corporation after its recent fall from grace due to the loss of both its heiress as well as its head CEO. The grieving widow felt herself unable to run the company by herself, and decided to sell it, as well as all factories, mines, plants, and railways to SDC."

"Well that's just goddamn depressing."

"As a result, Schnee now holds a monopoly in Vale. However, after a year of little supervision, multiple train tracks exclusive to use by the Grimoire Corporation have become overrun with grimm, and fallen into disrepair due to said grimm. SDC decided that it would be a better idea to hire hunters to take care of these tracks rather than standard mercenaries, because they know that we'll get the job done. We're getting sent in to clear out a railway that connects Mistral to Vale."

"How much are we getting paid."

"Fifty thousand lien each."

Eren's eyebrows raised as he responded.

"Shit."

"Yeah. Shit. It's a lot. Which is why I'd like it if we wouldn't fuck this up."

"Come on, we have the highest completion percentage out of any team in Vale, I think we can handle this, it sounds like another boring as hell routine mission."

"They sent in a scout class airship to survey the tracks. Apparently this horde is somewhere in the Forest of Dead Trees, the airship lasted long enough to send multiple photos back to its homebase before something with wings took it down."

"It must have been a drake."

"It wasn't a drake."

"How do you know?"

"Because drakes are an extinct grimm species. No one has seen a drake in centuries."

"Dammit woman, I will not have you ruin this for me! It's a motherfucking drake and I know it! And you know what, even though you're an ungrateful bitch, I will kill it myself."

"Uh huh."

The two heard a pair of footsteps. There stood Silas Habonia. He wore his black jacket and combat pants. On his hand were the gloves that he used to channel dust and aura into his glyphs. He moved to the seats across the row from Eren and Hana.

"Finally ready, huh mutey? Why were you so late? Oh I'm sorry, I don't understand your bullshit hand language so don't even bother."

Silas' only response was to give Eren the one fingered salute without even turning to look at him.

"Why is everyone in the mood to be rude to me today?"

"Probably because you're an asshole."

Eren turned to see the last member of team HRSE walking into the train car. It was a giant suit of dark red armor. On the back of the armor was a massive tower shield as well as a sword that was almost as tall as the knight, who was almost seven feet tall.

"You're one to talk menstruator. Isn't that sword on your back just to compensate for your tiny dick?"

"My full title is Blood Iron. If you keep on saying it wrong I'm going to shove this massive sword straight up your ass."

"Well come on then period paladin. Let's fight it the hell out!"

Eren jumped to his feet and stood in front of the knight. It wasn't an impressive sight. Eren was at average height while the knight was close to seven feet. The wide and toothy grin on Eren's face however, made him much more intimidating.

"And I don't know how many times I have to explain that I don't have a dick."

The knight took off the round helmet, which revealed a woman with a round face and curly chin length, brown hair. She set the helmet off to the side in order to stare at Eren more effectively.

"My full name is Blood Iron Reina, and you know it."

"Will you two stop?"

Both turned to Hana who was reading her book.

"If the two of you don't sit down and behave, I'm not going to give you the pay from this mission."

Both gave each other one last death glare before they took their seats.

The train ride wasn't particularly interesting. The train itself was entirely automated, so they were the only four onboard. Eren sat twirling a butterfly knife absentmindedly. Hana was still reading her book. Reina was sharpening the massive sword she carried and Silas was fiddling with the dust compartments that went on his gloves and forearms. Eren drove the knife into the seat next to him and gave a sigh of frustration.

"Almost ten years now I've been working with you people, and not a single one of you has gotten any less boring than the day we first met, in fact, I'd say you've all gotten even more boring."

"And I swear you've gotten even more obnoxious."

"Shut up Hana. I remember when you were a blushing little baby face back then. It was kind of adorable back then, now you're a complete bitch, and a fucking fun vacuum."

Hana shrugged.

"Becoming a full time hunter can change someone."

"Look, all I'm asking for is a little conversation. Back when I was a merc, my dad and his buddies were constantly joking around before our missions. Now I'm stuck with stick up her ass, the menstruating menace, and uh, Silas."

An alarm sounded, causing Reina to tighten her grip on her greatsword.

"What's that?" she asked.

Hana rose with grace to her feet and strapped her quivers to her back, along with her bow.

"It's only supposed to go off if a sensor on the front of the train detects a living creature without aura. We're also getting close to the Forest of Dead Trees. Come on, get ready and come to the front of the train."

Silas tightened his gloves and stepped in line behind Hana. Reina put on her helmet and put her sword and shield on her back.

"It's about damn time." said Eren as he rose to his feet.

Hana led the other three out to the roof of the front car, where the dust powered engine was. On the tracks, an ursa stood on its hind legs to give out an inaudible roar. The train met the ursa on the tracks, causing the bear to explode into red splatter on the front of the train.

"Choo choo motherfucker." said Eren with a grin.

The train was soon inside the Forest of Dead Trees, a forest filled with massive, gray trees that were still standing after centuries of death. It was entirely unknown how the forest had died all together in the first place, or why its massive trees were still standing. It was topic of fierce debate in the science world.

"Remember," said Hana. "This is the wastelands, out here, the Grimm are on top, and with good reason. Be careful. I'm going to try to link with you three, so be ready."

Hana closed her eyes and concentrated on her semblance. She let her mind explore the area near her and blocked out all sound. The minds of her teammates were well known to her, so it took her less than a second to find them.

_Reina, can you hear me?_

_Yeah._

_Silas, how about you?_

_Yes._

_And Eren?_

_Whatever._

She opened her eyes and connected the three of them to each other. The four of them were now able to communicate with their minds. It was an intimate connection to say the least. Despite the group's bickering, they had managed to achieve the close knowledge of each other to allow them to communicate this way.

A massive roar filled the skies. They looked up. High above the trees was a large reptilian beast with wings. It let out fire from it's mouth before flying low to swipe down at them. They ducked down and the beast flew off.

"See! I so fucking told you!"

More beasts began to appear. Taurus, ursai, beowolves, and capras were moving between the trees, following the train as it moved along the tracks.

_What's our plan, Hana?_ said Silas.

Hana couldn't send back a good answer when she saw the drake come back out from one of the trees. This time it was aiming for the train itself.

Hana took out her bow and sent an arrow flying into the beast's roaring mouth. After a second the arrow exploded in its mouth. It didn't even cause a noticeable reaction. Silas raised his hands and began to use glyphs to send blasts of dark energy at the creature. Reina took out her shield and sword and got into position. Eren pulled a staff with handholds off of his back and pushed a button in it's center. A a thick scythe blade flipped out of one end as Eren's signature smile spread across his face.

The drake continued flying, despite Hana and Silas' continuous onslaught against it. Soon enough, the drake crashed its hind legs into the train. The sheer force was enough to knock the train off of the tracks and send the entirety of team HRSE flying.

* * *

**Well I spent too long on this chapter. I apologize. So it's been about twenty days and I had a lot of distractions happen. Some legit, (my grandmother's death and the funeral as well as the aftermath) and others not so legit. (getting into modding skyrim) In other news, INFERNAPE-4EVER and I have started a joint partnership, or a joint business venture, if you will. The two of us have decided to help each other out with our fanfics, (she had a big hand in the kiss scene) as a result, she has now begun to use Alexei with my permission, in her story, A Rosefire Christmas. So if anyone is interested in seeing Alexei in a different story (where RubyxTorchwick is the main pairing) then go check it out, it's pretty good.**

**Also, I have to give Heavenlyenigma a shout out for breaking some kind of record. Within eighteen minutes of the story's posting, he correctly guessed team HRSE's inspiration. As for CO2IsSmilin, I'm glad to see another person enjoying my fic.**


	6. The End of Bullies

Chapter 6: The End of Bullies

Alexei looked around the lush, red forest around him. It was all blood red, which gave him an uneasy feel. Why would they even take a field trip to a grimm-infested forest for any reason other than combat training? The forest had gained its name from the constant color of the leaves of its trees. A forest forever locked in the season of fall. That still didn't explain why the grass below his feet was red as well. He just decided to continue following the group ahead of him, being led by Miss Goodwitch herself.

She had probably been very opposed to Alexei going along, but he was sure that Ozpin had somehow convinced her to let him anyway- even if he didn't quite want to. He had tried to refuse, but Goodwitch had threatened him with a week-long project on top of double homework if he didn't. Alexei was pretty sure this confirmed it: Goodwitch and Ozpin had to shagging. There was no way he was able to get her to do all these things that she clearly didn't think were good ideas, and that riding crop of hers was probably-

Nope! He didn't want to think about it anymore.

He noticed that the group in front of him had stopped suddenly and everyone was given a lecture from Goodwitch on the forest. She ended it by saying that everyone should try to stay with their team, and gave Alexei a stern look before walking off to some other part of the forest by herself for some reason.

Alexei looked around at the other teams. Staying with someone else could be a good idea. If he got into a fight by himself then he would definitely lose control. If he was with someone else then he could hang back and deliver shots with Gray Death's rifle. He looked at his options. As much as he liked the idea of using team CRDL as meatshields, he couldn't stand to be around them for very long before he did something drastic. Team RWBY had Yang, but Ruby was always close to her and he still wanted to keep himself a secret from her. That and Blake and Weiss seemed to be distrusting of him.

His only option then was team JNPR. Jaune had just left them for CRDL. Alexei had talked with Pyrrha once before and they seemed to get along, but Lie Ren and Valkyrie might still be bitter from the time that he had brushed them all off. He shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't like he really had anything to lose anyways. He just realized that he didn't have a spout anyways, just an empty jar. He still wasn't sure how he felt about Peach using them for simple manual labor.

Alexei walked up to the three person team and spoke.

"Well you guys seem to be short a member and I don't have a spout, would it be okay if I joined you?"

The three turned to look at him. Valkyrie's gaze was strange, and hard to explain. Some strange mix of curiosity and faux seriousness. Lie Ren's look was definitely serious and hard to read. Pyrrha's was short, and after she was done she turned back to her tree and shrugged.

"Sure."

Pyrrha seemed tense, and her general body language told Alexei that she wanted to be left alone, so he opted out and stood next to Lie Ren and Valkyrie at their tree a few meters away.

"Is something wrong with her?" he asked his question quietly, though he was still sure that Pyrrha had heard him.

"We've all been a bit worried about our leader for the past week." said Ren.

"Jaune's been hanging out with team CRDL a lot." Nora's tone was somewhat saddened, almost childlike.

Alexei tried to look around for the blond boy and the team of bullies but couldn't find them anywhere. Ren grabbed Alexei's empty jar and filled it with the sap before handing it back.

"Any idea why?" asked Alexei. He regretted it right after asking. All three members, even Ren, visibly sunk.

"No." said Pyrrha. "He's far too busy being the 'hero' and ignoring anybody who tries to help him."

"Maybe he just wants to prove himself."

Pyrrha turned to Alexei with a cold look on her face.

"And is that what you're trying to do, prove yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"As if you have any room to talk about this! You've been pushing away anyone who tries to get anywhere close to you since we got here! Anytime anyone brings up the cloak, mask, or anti-social activity, you just say that 'It's complicated', as if that's a good enough excuse to not let your friends help you."

Ren got up and immediately stood in front of Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, please, calm down. You're directing your anger with Jaune at Alexis."

Alexei stood straight and looked Pyrrha in the eye as his own anger boiled over.

"What do you know about me, Nikos?! Do you know why I'm trying to stay away from people!?"

"No, but why can't you just talk to people about what you're problem is?"

"Why do you even need to know? Why can't anyone just let me be alone?!"

Nora looked completely different as she looked between the two, almost like a lost and saddened child, Ren, however attempted his best to diffuse the situation.

"Please, both of you stop. Neither of you mean it."

Pyrrha looked to Ren. After he gave her a look she looked down and shook her head. She had calmed but Alexei on the other hand hadn't.

"Why can't people just accept the fact that I want to keep them at a distance, I just want to protect them!"

Ren and Pyrrha both turned to Alexei. Nora was looking nervously between her teammates and the boy in the gray cloak, who was still fuming and throwing his arms around.

"Why do people have to try and get close and make me feel like shit for trying to stay away?!"

Ren and Pyrrha weren't ones to get into another's business, but what Alexis was saying made them curious.

"What are you protecting people from?" asked Pyrrha.

Alexei turned to them.

"Myself!"

The others looked at him in different ways. Pyrrha looked somewhat surprised. Ren hid most of his emotion, but his eyes still shone surprise along with more wonder. Nora looked shocked and almost worried.

"Alexis, your eyes are turning black."

Pyrrha's words caused panic to flood his veins. He tensed up and prepared to run off to some section of woods where he could at least direct his semblance elsewhere. He started shaking as he did everything that he could to get the semblance to stop. Alexei stood there as the others watched.

"What's happening?" Nora asked Ren. She was unsure what was happening and seemed afraid of what was affecting Alexei.

Ren stepped forward with Pyrrha behind him, the two looked deeper into Alexei's eyes, which were flashing between their usual gray and a pitch black that took up even the whites of his eyes.

"No, you fucker, there's no way I'm letting you out!"

"Alexei, who are you talking to?" Pyrrha's tone was one of concern. She reached out and touched his arm.

Alexei violently jerked his head to face Pyrrha who looked startled. His eyes jerked around to look at the three of them and images of them dead and mutilated played through his mind. He threw his head back and screamed through his cloth mask. His eyes changed rapidly as his eyes flashed rapidly between gray and black. Veins pulsed as he strained to keep himself under control.

The others jerked back as Alexei fell to his knees and shoved his face into the red grass. Anything the rest said was lost to him as he tried to keep his screaming down as well as keep the semblance restrained. Anything the others did wasn't relevant to him. For brief seconds he could see a reflection of himself, except his reflection was that of what he looked like when he lost control. It was almost as if he was physically fighting the other version of himself. Alexei began to claw at the dirt and punch his fist into it as well, but all of a sudden, he went still, and silent.

He noticed that the others around him were frozen and that there were a few more pairs of legs than usual. Alexei slowly rose to his feet. His eyes were closed and he couldn't tell whether or not he had been successful, running his tongue across the teeth in his mouth, he found them to be rounded, and not sharp fangs.

Alexei slumped his shoulders and opened his eyes. Team RWBY was standing in front of him along with Glynda and JNPR minus Jaune. Glynda was standing in front of the students with her riding crop in hand. She was looking him carefully in the eyes. When she saw that they were the usual gray, she also relaxed her posture by just a bit. The students had a mix of facial expressions. Yang's was of worry and concern. Ruby looked somewhat fearful. Weiss and Blake both looked wary, Blake even had a hand on her weapon. Nora was standing close to Ren, one hand clutching to his sleeve. Ren himself simply watched without much on his face. Pyrrha was hard to read as well, but there was some concern in her gaze.

Alexei rolled his shoulders and tried to act as unaffected as possible.

"You should all see the looks on your faces." he said. It hadn't come out as confidently as he had liked, but it did seem to calm the harsh atmosphere a little.

"Are you yourself, Mister Gray?" Glynda watched him carefully after asking, as if she had expected the semblance to have disguised itself.

"Yeah, we can go back to the trees now."

"Very well then, students, you may return to what you were doing, and has anyone seen team CRDL?"

Everyone shook their heads and slowly went back to where they had been before Alexei had entered his episode. Alexei himself slumped down against a tree and let out a sigh.

"What was that back there?"

Pyrrha and her teammates stood above him- well Ren and Pyrrha did, Nora was kneeling in front of him and leaning in to stare into his eyes.

"Why were they turning black earlier?"

The question was filled with curiosity, it seemed as though the fear from earlier was completely gone. Alexei felt as though he was in the middle of a staring contest as the girl in front of him never blinked and continued to stare into his eyes. He had to eventually break eye contact as it got too uncomfortable to maintain.

"Nora."

"Yes Ren?"

Ren simply gave Nora a look, she giggled and moved back to Ren's side.

"Was that your semblance?"

Alexei looked up at Pyrrha, she had her arms across her chest and was looking down.

"Yeah, it's a little...hard to control."

"I think I've heard a little bit about a semblance like that." said Ren.

"The Death Semblance." said Alexei.

Pyrrha's eyes widen as Ren shook his head.

"That's the really bad one, right?" asked Nora.

"Yeah." said Alexei. "Tell me, do you think we're born with our personality already decided?"

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha squatted down next to Alexei.

"I mean, a semblance is a manifestation of our personality in the form of a power, if we're born with a semblance, then either that means our personality is already preset, that must mean that I've always had the desire to kill."

"I think that a semblance is a power we're born with, and can make or break our personality as we grow. Perhaps those who have no semblance are simply incompatible with the one they were born with."

Alexei looked back into Pyrrha's eyes. She smiled back, and Alexei caught himself smiling as well.

Alexei slowly rose to his feet and stretched out his back.

"I think I'm going to go find a place to sleep."

"In a forest filled with grimm?" asked Ren in an unimpressed manner.

"Have you seen anything today?"

"Good point."

Alexei waved to the three of them as he walked through the forest. He had more wanted to think than anything. It was scaring him a bit. The semblance was changing him the closer he got to controlling it, but despite that fear he still loved the feeling of gaining control. Alexei stopped walking when he heard familiar voices to his right.

"Come on!"

"Hitting it harder won't necessarily help it sis."

Alexei peered through the bushes next to him to see both Yang and Ruby some distance away, Yang was pushing a spout into a tree while Ruby held the jars. They were the only two visible, perhaps Weiss and Blake had gone off somewhere else.

"See!" said Yang. "I told you it just needed a little more force, now give me the jars."

Ruby handed over both containers and put her hands behind her back.

"So that thing with Alexis was pretty scary, huh?"

Yang looked a little bit surprised that Ruby had brought it up, she looked a little saddened by the memory.

"Yeah…"

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know sis, maybe he just lost it."

"No, I think you do know."

Yang turned to her sister, both jars were filled and she placed them down to secure the lids on both.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not a kid anymore, Yang, I know that you've been sneaking out of the dorm at night to see him, are you two...doing stuff?"

"Well, no, I mean-"

"Stop." Ruby held up her hand. "He's Alex isn't he?"

Yang's eyes widened as did Alexei's, how could she have known?

"You know what happened to Alexei."

"Don't lie to me!" Ruby threw her hands down and looked Yang in the eyes. "It is him, isn't it? Why did you keep it from me? Why would he avoid me and not you? Why is he hiding at all?"

Alexei felt stung by her words. She sounded like she was on the verge of crying.

"Sis, I...I found out on the second day of school, the day after initiation. I confronted him and he said that if I told anyone else then he'd shut everyone out."

"But why? Why is he being like this?"

"I think that's something you'll have to ask him, he's...he's been through a lot Ruby. Really, he needs people to help him, but he's afraid."

"Of what?"

"Honestly, I think he's afraid of himself."

"I don't understand."

"I think you should hear it from him."

"When then? When can I even tell him that I know it's him?"

"He's going through a lot Ruby, it might be awhile before he's ready to talk to you."

Ruby was silent and looked down at the ground. Yang and Alexei could tell that she was still so sad. He couldn't really blame Yang for giving in so easily, he was surprised he had lasted against Ruby for so long.

"I've missed him."

"I did too Ruby, I thought I'd never see him again, I still remember the day we got the news."

"Yeah…"

Both were silent, it was clear that it had been bad for both of them. Alexei could hardly bare to watch it anymore. The two girls he cared for the most in the world were on the edge of tears, and it was his fault. Alexei didn't want to watch, but he felt like he had to. For a moment he wanted to step out and tear off the mask and cloak and hug the two, maybe even go back to the way things were, but he also thought that that could be a bad idea. What if the student body found out that he was still alive? There would be questions. The parents of his victims would demand justice and everything could fall apart. If the world knew that Ozpin had hidden a student that had effectively murdered his fellow students, it could be the end of Beacon.

Several roars caught Alexei's attention, he tried to guess the location but found it futile.

"Ursa! Ursa!"

Alexei spotted the mohawk wearer from Cardin's team, the boy was running and ran into Yang, who quickly interrogated him for information on what was going on. The guy stuttered and and said that an ursa had Cardin back further in the woods. Yang and Ruby ran to their team as well as the still-leaderless team JNPR. Alexei ran in the direction that the mohawk guy had pointed and reached the place where an ursa major leaped through the air to strike Cardin down to his hands and knees.

Alexei heard running and turned around to see Pyrrha, Weiss, and Ruby behind him. Ruby gave him a look for a second before focusing on the scene in front of them. Alexei shook his head and reached for Gray Death behind his cloak. There was no point in hiding it really, Ruby knew. Alexei turned back to see Jaune defending Cardin. Somehow the scrawny blond had managed to raise his shield to block the ursa's arm. Alexei could see that the ursa was pushing Jaune into the ground with its strength, but he still maintained his stance.

Weiss prepared next to him as he pulled out Gray Death in it's compact form as a gray rectangle. Ruby looked at him, but he ignored her as best as he could.

"Wait."

Alexei stared at Pyrrha to try and figure out why she thought that letting Jaune get eaten by an ursa was an okay idea, he knew that she was a little mad at him, but that was a bit much.

Jaune turned his shield to the side to let the ursa huge paw slide off, he followed up with a slash to its body. The ursa was caught off guard and stumbled back, but used its momentum to try and crush Jaune with its other arm. Jaune rolled to the side and ended up in a crouch position. He used it to his advantage to jump over the ursa low swipe, but couldn't do a thing to avoid a punch it landed on him. He rolled with the blow and let it carry him to his feet, without a pause, he charged at the beast again, only for it to swing at him and send him tumbling to the ground again.

Alexei readied himself as he pushed the button on Gray Death that caused it to unfurl to become it's rifle form. With the gun completed he aimed down the iron sights at the ursa's head. A hand pushed the barrel of his rifle to point at the ground, it had been Pyrrha, who now looked him in the eyes.

"He can do this, Alexis."

Alexei saw that Ruby was once again looking at the weapon in his hand, her eyes drifted to his, and she somehow managed to communicate to him that they needed to talk. He turned back to the fight in front of him.

Jaune rose to his feet yet again and ran at the ursa, it reacted in kind by charged at him. His position with the shield above him meant that he could easily block the ursa, but he was lowering it for some reason. Alexei watched closely as the monster's clawed hand came closer to the blond, but something changed. Jaune's shield glowed black and moved upwards, the ursa's attack slid off and Jaune planted his foot into the ground and swung his blade upwards to decapitate the bear in a single attack. The ursa's head fell to the ground next to its body.

Alexei looked to his side to see Pyrrha's hand raised and glowing a similar black that the shield had shined earlier.

"Uh...what?"

"How did you…?"

Pyrrha smiled at Ruby and Weiss before she explained.

"Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, my semblance, is polarity."

"You can control poles."

Alexei gave a light laugh at Ruby's comment. Weiss was not similarly amused.

"No you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism."

"Magnets are cool too."

Pyrrha turned to leave them.

"Where are you going?" asked Weiss.

"Yeah, we got to tell them what happened." said Ruby.

Pyrrha turned back to them with that same smile from before.

"We could, or perhaps we could keep it our little secret."

She turned and left. Alexei let Gray Death retract back into its more convenient shape and strapped it onto his back, he looked over at Ruby who was distracted by Weiss and started walking away. He made it a few steps before Ruby appeared in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Ruby-"

"Nope! You're explaining everything to me right now."

"Can't we-"

"Nope!"

"There's not-"

"Nope!"

Alexei turned to the heiress next to him, who was watching mild interest.

"Can you help me out here Schnee?"

"It looks like your little charade is over now _Seryy_."

"Weiss knows too!"

"So does Blake."

Either Weiss was loyal to Ruby, or she just really liked throwing people under the bus.

"Were you going to tell the whole school before me?!"

"It's not like I told either of them, Yang found out by attacking me, then she told Weiss, and apparently Blake got curious and broke into Ozpin's office to find out who I was exactly."

"But still, Alex!"

"Come on Ruby! I can explain later, we should get back to the airships."

Ruby gave him a long, hard stare which he could barely withstand. Finally she backed off and stopped being as serious.

"Okay, but you better explain it later."

"I will Ruby, I just need some time."

"Fine."

She looked at him for a second and then at his mask.

"You're face isn't messed up or something, is it?"

"What?"

"Like you didn't get into some big accident?"

"No, Ruby my face is fine." he pulled down his mask and let her and Weiss see his face before he pulled it back up. "It's got nothing to do with that, let's just get back to the airships."

The three turned and walked back to the direction that they had remembered the airships being, it was a quiet and uncomfortable walk. Alexei could feel Ruby staring at him the whole time.

"Do you turn into a grimm?"

Alexei stopped and looked at her with a face full of confusion, she looked somewhat sheepish at the question.

"What?"

"Well, whenever you were on the ground screaming, it kind of reminded me of that one old movie, Beowolfman."

Alexei looked at her for a second before smiling under his mask.

"Yes, Ruby, I turn into a massive beowolf sometimes, and my favorite thing to eat would have to be girls in little red hoods."

"I'm not a kid anymore Alexei, there's no way that's gonna-"

He interrupted her by leaping at her while imitating a loud growl, Ruby screamed and ran down the path they had been following with Alexei right behind her. Weiss stood and watched the two of them.

"So childish."

She said this despite having a smile on her face.

* * *

Hana Victoria, that was her name. She awoke on a large, dead tree branch at the sound of a distant howl. Groaning along the way, she sat up. Hana tried to remember what had happened. She had fired an arrow with a rope attached and swung up into a tree, but she misjudged the distance and slammed her head into the the side. The blow had left her with a headache, which muddled with her semblance.

Standing up, Hana surveyed the area around her, she was high up in a tree around eighty or ninety meters tall. Below her and far off in the distance she could make out the silver metal of the train tracks, but she couldn't see a trace of her team. Hana picked up her bow, King's Regret, she checked the drawstring and found that it worked just fine. The bow was placed in its rightful place on her back in between the two quivers that hung from her shoulders. She dropped from branch to branch to get closer to the forest floor where a multitude of younger plants grew around the bases of the trees that were far more ancient. Once she stood on a branch closer to the ground the paths of her teammates became somewhat more obvious.

Hana knew that Reina would have had no way to get herself out of the blast of that explosion, and the line of destroyed trees and flattened underbrush had made that idea more believable. No doubt the blood knight had destroyed them all as she was knocked back by the blast. Reina had never been one to avoid any attacks at all.

Silas was harder to guess, he might have actually used the momentum and dust that had spewed from the engine to propel himself further, maybe to get to a vantage point, or maybe a place he deemed safe enough to land.

From the deep cuts in some trees twenty meters to her left, Hana could guess that Eren had used his scythe to slow himself down and go charging deeper into the forest in search for grimm to kill.

Hana sighed and silently made a mental note to scold her teammates for not at least trying to regroup. Sometimes the three of them sempt more content in displaying their skills as individuals than as an actual team.

Hana decided that out of the three, Silas might need the most help. His powers were incredibly effective, but he wasn't able to take much damage and his overuse of dust could cause him to tire easily. Reina would be the easiest to track, and while she was the toughest of the four of them, she could easily get overwhelmed and fall. Eren was almost unkillable, his mastery of his semblance made him ridiculously deadly and as long as he used it carefully, it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

In order to track Silas, however, she'd need to follow any traces of dust, and as her scroll had been smashed in the crash, she couldn't do that. Even worse, her semblance wasn't working properly and she couldn't sense any of their minds. She sighed again and began leaping from branch to branch, following the path of destruction that Reina had left. As she leapt she noticed a shadow following along behind her, it was something with wings, but it didn't seem to be big enough to be the drake or a giant nevermore, it was something smaller. When she looked again, she say that there were many of them. She drew her bow and pulled out a frag arrow. With the reflexes she had gained from years of training, she turned as fast as she could and drew back on the bow to loose an arrow into the flock of small nevermores. The arrow drove itself into one in the middle and exploded. The shrapnel from the bomb flew out and hit the creatures in front and to the sides of the arrow's original target. The other's lost the use of their wings due to the damage and spiralled to the ground below, but the rest of the swarm continued to pursue Hana.

Each one was nearly the size of a human, and two were getting much closer to her. She smacked one away with her bow and stabbed the other with a handheld arrow. Hana continued to leap further on and pulled back an arrow with her bow. The drawstring started to glow white as the arrow itself glowed. When the arrow shot out it flew with far more momentum. She grabbed onto the rope that was attached and let the arrow pull her until it lodged into a tree, where she landed on a thin branch. Once again she drew back a fragmentation arrow and loosed it into the swarm of nevermores, its effect was noticeable, but the swarm was still too highly numbered. Even after four more arrows, their numbers still persisted.

From the quiver on her hip, she drew an arrow with a gleaming red head on its end. She pulled a pin on the glowing head and notched the arrow in her bow to pull it back. She breathed out to calm her shaking hands, she had to act before the swarm got too close, once she had pinpointed the arrow's path to a nevermore in the center, she let the arrow go. Immediately she got around the tree she had been on and jumped away, to another tree. The explosion behind her had been so large it had completely destroyed the tree she had been on just a second ago. She breathed out a rough breath and spoke to herself.

"That was over a thousand lien I just wasted."

"_You can't go wasting things so frequently Hana."_

_The man who said that was scorning her for destroying a vase. He had the same features as her, light tan skin, black hair, emerald eyes, the only difference was the soft hair on his face that she used to play with as a toddler. Even though he was supposed to be scolding her, he did it lightly, he had never been harsh with her, even when she probably deserved it._

"_The Victoria family was once a great dynasty of nobility, but our ancestors got too greedy, and in their conquest they lost all that they had gained, now we cannot afford to create such losses again. Do you understand?"_

"_Yes father." she said, lowering her small head in shame._

"_All is forgiven." he gave a small laugh as he patted his hand on her head._

"No." Hana said to herself in the present. "Why am I remembering this, it's too depressing."

"_What was it that she used to do this Leya?"_

_The family maid stepped forward with the bow Hana had taken from the wall above the mantle, where old heirlooms rested. Her father smiled as he took it from the servant and held it in front of Hana._

"_This bow has been in our family for generations, it is named, the King's Regret, do you know why?"_

_Young Hana shook her head as she listened closely to her father._

"_It was said to have been made for the king himself, our last family member to sit upon the throne. The man who made it had started before the king went on his conquest, and finished it long after, the result was this bow, which went to the last surviving family member, who described the king after his fall as 'a tired and regretful old man.'"_

_She stared at it in wonder._

She stared at the same bow in her hands, it had been fused with dust inside, which had led to the bow lasting for as long as it did. It was the only thing left of her family now. She shook her head at the thought. She couldn't afford to think about it now, she had to find her teammates.

As she continued on she found the leftovers of a small battle. Dead grimm littered the forest floor, but it was impossible to tell who it had been. She ruled out Silas because the plant life on the ground was still alive, so it had to be one of the other two. She dropped to the forest floor to get a closer look at the grimm, the fight had been at least ten minutes before, the bodies weren't fully evaporated but were getting close. Hana felt a mind somewhere ahead of her, but it was too far to contact, or identify. It was good that her semblance didn't pick up the minds of grimm, she had far too much trouble with crowds of people all thinking at once, she couldn't imagine what would happen if she could hear the combined thoughts of thousands of creatures at once.

Hana decided that making it to the mind she had sensed was the best option. She continued traveling by using the tree branches as a mode of transit. The mind was getting closer, and her semblance was starting to clear up, soon enough, she could tell that there were two more minds. It appeared as though all four of them were slowly converging on the same spot. She was too deep in her concentration that she reacted slowly when the tree behind her was destroyed as something crashed into it.

Twisting around in the air, she saw the open maw of a flying beast. The inside of its mouth was comprised of long fangs with a throat that seemed to have an orange glow at the back.

Hana barely had enough time to get her feet against the drake's teeth and push herself away before the beast let flame spew forth from its mouth. Hana grabbed onto one of the white spines that were on the top of its snout and used it to swing herself onto its bone mask that was common of grimm. There she notched an arrow and let it loose into the right eye of the creature, it didn't have much of an effect, until the arrowhead exploded within and caused the solid red orb to blow outward in a gory mess. The drake shook it head violently and roared. It flew straight into another large tree and made the enormous dead thing snap and fall. The force sent Hana tumbling down, where she awkwardly landed with left foot on another branch. The landing had been awkward, and a sharp pain shot up to her knee, a possible sprain, but it wasn't something she could focus on at the moment.

The drake flapped its wings harder to get higher than the trees, but the lose of its eye caused problems with its depth perception and made the legendary grimm crash into more treetops before it could be at its desired altitude. Hana checked her leg again by taking a step with it, more pain shot upwards from her foot, causing her to grimace. She had no time to pay attention to it, hopefully adrenaline could help her to ignore the pain, for now she'd have to allow her remaining aura to see to the wound. To her right was a clearing, where she could see a large red figure sprinting towards the center, it was no doubt Reina, in her blood iron armor. Hana dug another rope arrow into the branch and shot an arrow on the other end of the rope at the feet of Reina, who took the hint and ran with the rope to pull it taut. Hana used King's Regret to slide down the rope and wind up next to her friend.

"Are you injured, Reina?"

Her armored companion shook her head in her helmet, her heavy breathing came out hollow through the metal.

"No, but I have a Papa Beowolf somewhere behind me."

Hana was about to reply when Silas flew out of the forest to emerge into the clearing with smoke trailing behind him. He landed and looked at them, with one gesture between his head and the other two, Hana set up a mental connection between the three of them.

_You're walking strangely on your left leg, Hana._

"It's probably just a sprain."

_Then stay off of it as much as possible._

An ursa broke through the underbrush, but it wasn't charging towards them, just running. The reason for it's fear came through a millisecond later. Eren burst through and swiped out the grimm's legs with a single swing of his scythe, the beast came crashing down as its attacker laughed. Eren stepped around the whining creature and swung the blade downwards and into its skull. He turned around with his smile proudly displayed, the teeth weren't sharp and his eyes were still his natural color, but the horns of a ram protruded from his shaved head and wrapped up and around to end in points near his jawline, so he had used his semblance at some point.

Soon, more grimm began appearing from the forest, the first to appear was a large wolf, maybe twelve feet tall while standing on all fours, followed shortly by an ursa that looked a few feet taller.

"Where did that one come from?" asked Reina.

_I might have forgotten about the mama ursa that has been chasing me._

"You're usually far better than that, SIlas." said Hana as she notched an arrow.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun." said Eren, happy as ever.

"For once, we agree." Reina's tone was similar, yet more like she had just heard a good joke.

Another grimm, a huge bull, came from another end of the forest, an oversized Taurus on four legs.

"I thought I killed that." said Eren with disappointment. "Am I losing my touch?"

"Get over it Eren, eveyone, form up!" shouted Hana.

Team HRSE formed a diamond, with everyone facing outwards, Reina hefted over her massive tower shield, Silas let the dust capsules rearrange in his arms. Hana drew back on her bow as more, smaller grimm came out from the trees and surrounded them.

The skies filled with a roar as the drake circled around and landed in the open field, crushing a few grimm. For a few long seconds, the army of black monsters stared at the hunters before them, then they charged.

* * *

**Well I'm sorry all, I hoped to be able to update this story more often but I've failed. Life kept happening. College started for me, the charter outage happened, which is a problem since I use Google Drive, I just couldn't stay motivated, and a ton of personal stuff. This chapter is fully un-edited as my editor has been going through a rough patch herself. So chapters may become very infrequent. The story won't go on hiatus, but with college homework (one of which is a creative writing class which requires original work) and personal stuff that keeps coming up, expect chapters to become possibly more infrequent than they already are, but I will try my best to finish this story.**

**I think I might hold a poll to see how many people are interested, but I've been having ideas for a team HRSE sequel. Right now it's just a bunch incoherent ideas swarming around in my head, so it could be awhile, and if I do manage to catch up the volume 2 I want to wait until it's finished before I write Alexei's story there, so that might be when I attempt this team HRSE prequel.**

**Not really anything to answer in the previous reviews that isn't too spoilery. Anyways, the next chapters will balance out between Alexei and somewhat trailer chapters to introduce the the four hunters of team HRSE individually. Hana is conquest, or plague. Her last name means conquest in Latin and the story with the family is kind of a portrayal of how conquest can lead to absolute destruction of both your enemies and yourself, as shown by the name of her bow, King's Regret. Forgive me, I'm in a very poetic mood.**

**Anyways, this chapter is finally done, and I'm finally out of the bully arc. Hooray! It was honestly my least favorite story arc in RWBY and I got tired of having to constantly go back and rewatch its episodes as a reference, so I decided to be a bad writer and stick two episodes into one chapter. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter done before the end of the year and finish the story sometime before hover cars are invented/the world ends. And finally, thanks to all you for getting me to 1800 views, I can't even count that high. After this chapter I might be over 2000. I remember back when I was excited to be over 100. See you all next time. **


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